Macao's chief executive on Tuesday attributed the economic success of the special administrative region (SAR) to the Chinese mainland's open-up of individual travel to Macao.

Edmund Ho Hau Wah said that he personally considered the mainland's timely relaxation of individual travel restrictions on Macao-bound tour has catalyzed the local economic boom, which has been witnessed after the Macao SAR government broke the gaming market monopoly in 2002.

"In my opinion, the open-up of Macao's gaming industry serves as a marketing stunt in accelerating this round of economic growth," said the chief executive when answering questions concerning his Policy Address delivered at the Legislative Assembly Tuesday.

He explained that when the SAR government made the decision to introduce competition mechanism into the local gaming market, it only expected to see an initial result of the policy in the year 2007, since new casino operators would take years in settling project investment and infrastructure building.

However, the message has served as a selling point so as to increase the local market value at this stage, said Ho.

He held that the bulk growth in the government's fiscal income was mainly contributed by the flock-in of individual tourists from China's mainland after the travel restrictions were relaxed in many cities since last year.

Source: Xinhua