The Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) is not expecting “big numbers” in terms of mainland visitors during this Easter holiday, but is hoping to attract more foreign visitors during the period through its efforts, MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes told reporters on the sidelines of yesterday’s press conference about the upcoming 13th Macao International Travel (Industry) Expo at the Macau Science Centre.
Senna Fernandes noted that the reasoning behind the expectation is that the period is not a holiday in the mainland.
MGTO will continue to work on attracting international visitors not only from Macau’s important Asian visitor market segments such as Japan, South Korea and several countries in Southeast Asia, but also beyond. “This year, we’ve also branched out to a further field”, having recently completed seminars in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets like Dubai and Riyadh, while MGTO is also back to major trade shows in Europe.
“So going forward, I guess this will be the way to go for tourism. Obviously, we would need to consolidate the bread-and-butter markets like the ‘greater China area’ [an informal concept which comprises the Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau].
But very, very importantly, going forward, it will be our major task to attract more international visitors to Macau”, Senna Fernandes pointed out.
According to the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC), international visitors rose by 17.9 percent to 207,728 in February, or 6.6 percent of the total.
Macau Government Tourism Office Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes speaks with the English-language media after yesterday’s press conference at the Macau Science Centre in Nape. – Photo: Rui Pastorin
