The tourists were the first groups from the mainland after group travels to Macao and Hong Kong were broken by the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Guangdong Province was allowed to go ahead of other provinces and city in the mainland to resume group travels to Macao since June 1.

The number of travelers came in group tours was only 30 percent of the normal amount, said Joao Manuel Antunes, director of the Macao Tourist Office, who expected the business to return to a normal level in July.

With the lift of the World Health Organization's travel advisory against Guangdong Province and Hong Kong on May 23, many Guangdong residents set for a swift return to the Macao SAR. Most of the tourists came on Sunday were from Guangzhou, provincial capital of Guangdong, for a one-day trip to Macao.

Each tourist is obliged to take body temperature and fill in a health declaration form to enter Macao, said Antunes, adding that the office has notified tourist agencies and taxi companies to make preventive measures on SARS control.

Individual travels through various checkpoints of Macao boomed during the weekend. The number of passengers through the Gongbei Land Checkpoint, which links Guangdong and Macao, surpassed 130,000 on Sunday, which represented an unusual high level after the attack of the epidemic.

Macao has only one verified SARS case, and the patient was discharged from hospital Sunday after a complete recover.

The SAR government poised to reinvigorate the tourism industry has launched a 30 million-pataca (US$3.6 million) tourist promotion scheme. The Macao Foundation will contribute another 50 million pataca (US$6 million) to help win back customers from the source markets of Hong Kong, the mainland and Taiwan.

(People's Daily June 4, 2003)