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MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna de Senna de Senna de Macao: The number of mainland visitors to Macao has recovered to nearly 50% of the pre-pandemic level

author:Beijing News

With the resumption of customs clearance in Macao and the exchange of personnel between the Mainland and Macao, Macao's tourism recovery is gaining momentum. In an exclusive interview with the Beijing News Shell Finance Reporter, MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna de Senna Fernandes said that the number of visitors in March this year continued to maintain a good trend, and the current recovery situation is more ideal than expected, among which the number of mainland visitors to Macao has recovered to nearly 50% of the pre-epidemic level, and Macao Government Tourism Office has also launched a subsidy scheme for mainland group tourists. At the same time, the lack of service personnel and transportation facilities remain challenges for tourism recovery.

The number of mainland visitors to Macao has recovered to nearly 50% of the pre-pandemic level, and the lack of hotel practitioners is a challenge

Beijing News Shell Finance: Since January this year, what is the data of inbound tourists and hotels? How far has it recovered compared to pre-pandemic levels?

MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna de Senna de Senna de Macao: The number of mainland visitors to Macao has recovered to nearly 50% of the pre-pandemic level

Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, Director of Macao Government Tourism Office. Photo: Courtesy of interviewee

Senna Fernandes: In November last year, electronic signatures focused on new openings; On January 8 this year, the epidemic prevention measures for entry and transit were adjusted; From 6 February, group tourism activities between Mainland residents and Hong Kong and Macao will resume. This series of very positive factors has enabled the Macao SAR's tourism recovery to be faster than expected.

With the adjustment of inbound and transit epidemic prevention measures, we welcomed 1.3 million passengers in January this year. During this year's Spring Festival Golden Week (21-27 January 2023), Macao's total visitor arrivals reached 450,000. Combined with February data, nearly 3 million visitors visited Macao in the first two months of this year, with an average hotel occupancy rate of 74%. Visitor arrivals continued to trend well in March, with an average of about 65,000 visitors per day from 1 to 22 March, an increase of 14.3% over February. Among them, 96,000 visitors to Macao on 18 March, the highest number of visitors in a single day since the epidemic and this year.

As far as the inner floor block is concerned, the current recovery is about 45% of the pre-epidemic level, and due to the lack of visa requirements and convenient transportation in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, it has recovered to 75%-80%. In addition, due to factors such as fewer flights, the recovery of the overseas sector is still less than 20%. Nevertheless, the current recovery is still more than we expected, which is a very big encouragement for our tourism industry as a whole.

Beijing News Shell Finance: What challenges does Macao's tourism industry still face? What efforts have been made to address these challenges?

Senna Fernandes: The first challenge is the lack of service personnel. Before the pandemic, the average occupancy rate of Macau hotels exceeded 90%, and during this year's Spring Festival Golden Week, the average occupancy rate of hotel establishments in Macau was 85.7%, and the current average occupancy rate of hotel establishments is about 70%. In particular, hotel house cleaning staff have greatly reduced their use during the pandemic, and some non-local workers have returned to their places of origin. This type of work will have to be re-recruited and trained, so it will take some time to keep up with the pace of recovery. At present, the relevant departments are assisting the tourism industry in recruitment.

Another challenge is transportation. In the past two years, people's use of transportation has declined, whether it is taxi drivers or tourist bus drivers, the number has decreased, and with the recovery of tourism, different types of transportation packages must keep up. In addition, for international travellers, the resumption of routes is also very important, which is not only a problem for Macao, but also a challenge for the global tourism industry.

With comprehensive tourism as the starting point, it assists the development of the four major industries of health, finance, science and technology, and convention and exhibition

Beijing News: In recent years, Macao's tourism destination has been continuously enriched, what is the latest positioning of Macao tourism?

Senna Fernandes: The Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, issued in 2019, calls for Macao to be positioned as a "World Centre of Tourism and Leisure", plus two "business cards" given by the United Nations that Macao already has, one is that the "Historic Centre of Macao" was listed as a World Heritage Site in 2005, and the other is that Macao was named "Creative City of Gastronomy" in 2017. In recent years, in addition to continuing to make core products in terms of gastronomy, history and culture, Macao has also been striving to add many new connotations.

Last year, Macao put forward the "1+4" economic development strategy, with comprehensive tourism as the starting point, actively promoted by all walks of life, hoping to develop four new industries and achieve a moderate diversified development. "1" is to promote the diversified development of tourism and leisure in accordance with the goal requirements of building a world tourism and leisure center, and to make the comprehensive tourism and leisure industry better, refined and stronger. Among the four major sectors, the first is the big health industry, the second is the financial industry, the third is the technology industry, and the fourth is the exhibition that is very closely related to tourism, as well as the development of the cultural field. Integrated tourism should play a leading role in bringing different consumers to different industries, introducing visitor sources, and assisting the development of other industries.

Beijing News: After three years of the epidemic, Macao's tourism has reopened fully, will it launch preferential activities for mainland tourists?

Senna Fernandes: Mainland tourists have always been the main source of visitors to Macau. Since September 2020, Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) and Air Macau have launched a buy-one-get-one-free offer campaign for mainland visitors, which will continue this year. In addition, individual travelers can also collect Macau hotel vouchers through OTA (Online Travel) platforms. At the same time, we have recently launched a subsidy scheme for Mainland group visitors to encourage more Mainland tourists to visit Macao.

For Hong Kong, from 13 January to 31 March, MGTO (MGTO) will offer a buy-one-get-one-get-one-free offer for Hong Kong and Macau shuttle bus tickets or ferry tickets to Hong Kong residents, and is considering the continuation of the scheme.

For Taiwan, we have recently invited Taiwanese industry friends to come and connect with travel agencies in Macao. We also took them to Hengqin in particular, hoping to form a "multi-stop" tourism model. We hope that this month or next month, we can launch a subsidy program specifically for group travel in Taiwan, among which buy-one-get-one-free tickets are also valid for Taiwan.

Macau has targeted promotion plans for each source market, and together it is expected that Macao will give away about 120,000 air tickets this year.

Beijing News shell financial reporter Yu Meng'er

Edited by Li Zheng

Proofreader Zhao Lin

Image courtesy of interviewee

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