The Chinese government will forbid its citizens from visiting casinos while encouraging them to travel to Taiwan for pleasure, a top Chinese tourism official said yesterday in the island county of Kinmen. "It is Taiwan's own business to legalize gaming. The mainland's law makes it very clear that gambling is not permitted," said Shao Qiwei, director of China's National Tourism Administration.

A GBP 300m tourist attraction should be built on the site earmarked for the super-casino in east Manchester, regeneration experts have said. A delegation has been looking at other ways of bringing jobs to the Sportcity site since the casino plan was axed. Homes, offices, shops or an industrial estate were all ruled out as options because of "market conditions". A report before Manchester City Council says a tourist attraction would make the biggest economic contribution.

Tourists are spending more when travelling to Macau, with figures from the Statistics and Census Services showing an increase of 15.08 percent to 145.79 in the Tourist Price Index (TPI) in the first quarter of this year, compared to last year. The price indices of miscellaneous goods, restaurant services and accommodation registered significant increase of 33.75 percent, 19.52 percent and 13.34 percent, respectively, with increments attributable to dearer jewellery prices driven by rising gold prices...

Hong Kong won’t build casinos to compete with neighbouring Macau, despite the challenge posed by the gambling mecca’s rapid transformation into a tourism and convention hub, Hong Kong’s leader said on Thursday. "The answer is no," said CEO Donald Tsang when asked whether the city might construct its own casinos after a major push by some tourism operators and the pro-business Liberal party to build a casino resort.

The lure of spanking new casinos next door has helped Hong Kong attract a record number of tourists last month, analysts said last week. But despite that figure, fewer visitors stayed for at least one night over the first eight months of the year. But despite the rosy figure, fewer visitors stayed for at least one night over the first eight months of the year, against the same period last year, reflecting the challenges Hong Kong faces from Macau and other regional destinations.