The licence holder of Beijing Imperial Palace Hotel, Macau Hotel Developers Limited, requested Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) to cancel its hotel licence on 12 ^th January. The following day, the Director of MGTO issued an instruction to accede to the request and cancelled the licence, with the forced closure measures imposed upon the hotel not applying anymore.

In the announcement made by Macau Hotel Developers Limited it said that for six months from 22^nd July, 2016 after Beijing Imperial Palace Hotel was requested to temporary close by MGTO the new management of the company had requested a work permit from the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT) for removal of the illegal structures, which obstructed the Hotel, and other requested renovation works.

However, due to the unsatisfactory situation caused by the former management of the company the work permit was still under consideration. Even if the work permit and demolition permit had been approved immediately construction would not have been able to be completed by the end of the temporary closure period on 22 ^nd January, thus the company decided to request MGTO to revoke the hotel licence. The company planned to rebuild, renovate and reapply for a hotel licence once it could fulfil all of its legal requirements.

MGTO mentioned in July last year before the temporary closure of the hotel for six months that numerous violations included severe administrative infringement and illegal alterations discovered in past inspections. The severe infringements in fire security included not enough fire extinguishers, not enough emergency lighting, blockage of exits, occupancy of evacuation routes, invalid exhaust room, use of non-flame retardant decoration material and storage among of fuel, and so on.

MGTO prosecuted the hotel for these infringements and requested it to improve the situation within a given period of time; however, most illegalities were not addressed. Because the hotel was guilty of a number of severe administrative infringements threatening public safety and damaging the tourism image of Macao, MGTO implemented the temporary closure of Beijing Imperial Palace Hotel, the first time a 5-star hotel had been closed by the Macao Government.