Passengers wait at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport on April 29, 2023, the first day of the five-day May Day holidays. Photo: Courtesy of Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport

The National Immigration Administration (NIA) of China on Thursday announced further optimization of immigration-related policies from May 15, including facilitating the travel between Chinese mainland and Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and resuming service of previously expedited customs clearance.

The optimized measures includes resumptions of group tour applications for residents in Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, according to a notice issued on the website of NIA on Thursday.

Chinese mainland residents may submit their application for group tour visas to visit Hong Kong and Macao at any public security offices in the mainland.

The measures also include a nationwide scheme to handle applications to visit family relatives, and to work and study in Hong Kong and Macao.

It also prolonged the validity period of stay for mainland students in Macao. For mainland students studying in Macao-based universities the validity period of the stay visa will be adjusted from one year to the length needed to complete their study in Macao.

Expedited customs clearance at ports will be resumed. The measures extended the range of group that can enjoy quick customs clearance at ports in accordance with pre-pandemic practices.

The measures will further optimize the inbound and outbound tourism market, which is expected to fully bounce back in the second half of the year, after the just-ended May Day holidays brought a boom to domestic travel and retail sales, Xu Xiaolei, marketing manager at China's CYTS Tours Holding Co told the Global Times on Thursday.

The five-day May Day holidays from April 29 to May 3 have beaten the 2019 pre-pandemic level in the number of travel trips and revenues. 

According to data released by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism, a total of 274 million domestic trips were made during May Day holidays, with tourism revenue reaching 148.056 billion yuan ($21.42 billion).

Mainland tourists made about 560,000 trips to Hong Kong and 481,000 trips to Macao during the holidays, according to data from local authorities. 

The Hong Kong economy edged up in the first quarter of 2023, led by the strong recovery of inbound tourism and local demand. GDP grew by 2.7 percent in the first three months, ending four consecutive quarters of contractions. 

Looking ahead, inbound tourism and consumer demand will remain two major drivers of Hong Kong’s economic growth this year, according to a read-out from the website of Hong Kong SAR.

"As the mainland economy continues to gain traction and local aviation sector is quickly rebounding, I believe Hong Kong's economy in the second quarter will be better than the first,” Chief Executive John Lee said.