Since the law on "Prohibition of Providing Illegal Accommodation" took effect on August 13, operations to combat illegal accommodation have seen positive results. While raids to premises suspected to provide accommodation illegally are carried on, the SAR Government has been actively carrying out promotion and education seeking to reach visitors through different channels, to obtain more effective results. Targeting visitors during the October 1 “golden week”, Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) and Legal Affairs Bureau (DSAJ) have cooperated in the creation of a new promotion and education campaign. The two bureaus have printed flyers with a new image and slogan in Chinese, Portuguese and English. The new slogan is “Enjoy a pleasant trip in Macau, stay in legal Accommodation”. The flyer gives out all the necessary information alerting visitors to Macau to lodge in licensed hotels and inns. The flyers also inform about MGTO’s website www.macautourism.gov.mo, where visitors can find the list of the licensed hotels and inns, which has been placed in a highlighted area of the webpage. Visitors can also consult the list by calling the hotline 28 333 000. Besides distributing the new flyers in MGTO information counters and immigration counters, MGTO has received the support of Guangdong Province Tourism Administration for promotion and education initiatives in the source market, to guarantee the rights of the visitors. DSAJ printed and sent 200,000 flyers to Guangdong Provincial Tourism Administration to be distributed ahead of the “golden week” among the different tourism bureaus in the province, including Tourism Administration of Guangzhou Municipality, Zhuhai Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sports and Tourism, among other municipal tourism bureaus in the province. MGTO and DSAJ have also decided to launch a multimedia campaign from October 1 to 31 using mobile phone sms messages (in Mainland China and Macau), TV commercials and promotion on buses and taxis. The content of the one month long campaign includes the dissemination of 600,000 mobile phone sms messages in Guangdong Province alerting visitors to lodge in licensed hotels and inns when visiting Macau and to check MGTO’s website. After entering Macau, visitors using CTM’s roaming service will also receive a similar message on their mobile phones. Fifteen vehicles from the two Macau bus companies and 40 black and yellow taxis will promote the new image and slogan against illegal accommodation. Guangdong TV, Shenzhen TV and Zhuhai TV will broadcast commercials alerting visitors to refuse illegal accommodation, as well as MGTO’s advice encouraging visitors to choose quality and honest Macau tours when traveling to the city. When the law on "Prohibition of Providing Illegal Accommodation" took effect, MGTO and DSAJ undertook a series of promotional initiatives, using posters, flyers and local TV commercials to encourage residents to report suspected cases and alert visitors not to stay at illegal inns. With the new promotion launched around the “golden week”, the scope and channels of promotion were expanded, looking forward to create a bigger impact.
