Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes said yesterday that she was “not too optimistic” about the number of visitors during Chinese New Year (CNY), adding that she expected just 16,000 to 20,000 visitor arrivals per day.
Senna Fernandes made the remarks during the annual MGTO press conference at the Macau Science Centre in Nape. The conference lasted about two hours.
According to Senna Fernandes, only a few days in January exceeded 20,000 visitors daily. She added that her office recently contacted hotels in Macau and the occupancy rate is around 30 percent during the CNY period. She noted, however, that 3- to 5-star hotels have occupancy rates exceeding 30 percent between today and next Wednesday, while 2-star hotels are reporting single digit reservations during the holiday period. She said that she was therefore expecting fewer than 200,000 visitor arrivals for the CNY holiday period.
Senna Fernandes insisted that her office would strive to raise the number of visitor arrivals to 30,000 per day, adding she hoped that there will be six to 10 million visitor arrivals this year.
According to the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC), Macau recorded 5.89 million visitor arrivals last year, a year-on-year decline of 85 percent from the 39.4 million visitor arrivals in 2019.
When asked whether Macau’s COVID-19 vaccination drive, which started on Tuesday, would help with the tourism situation, Senna Fernandes said that according to scientists, only if 60 percent of the world’s population gets vaccinated could herd immunity be achieved. Therefore, she added, with all the uncertainties involved she didn’t expect a full recovery soon.
Senna Fernandes admitted that 2020 has been a difficult year for tourism in the city, noting that by October last year four new travel agencies had opened, 10 closed down for good and 33 were temporarily closed. She added that last month, three more travel agencies closed down. She also noted that during the peak impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic on Macau, 33 hotels and guesthouses were temporarily closed, while now of the 33 only one hotel and two guesthouses are still temporarily closed.
Macau confirmed its first COVID-19 case on January 22 last year. The number of cases currently stands at 48. No COVID-19 fatalities and no community outbreak have been reported locally.
Senna Fernandes also said that her office has been thinking of ways to help those working in the tourism sector. However, she admitted that last year’s local tours initiated by MGTO had been able to help them only temporarily. She pointed out that attracting tourists was still the main way of supporting tourism industry workers. She underlined that MGTO is still offering coupons to mainland visitors and continues to cooperate with mainland social media platforms for better Macau tourism promotions.
GP Museum’s trial operation
Senna Fernandes said that the MGTO this year has five major goals – deepening “tourism +”, reviewing the “Macau Tourism Industry Development Master Plan”, encouraging visitations, optimising iconic events and products, and streamlining government services.
Senna Fernandes explained that “tourism +” refers to reshaping the connection between tourism and gaming, MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions), culture and creativity, e-commerce, sport, and more. She said that through developing new tourism products, the industry could promote its extensive growth as well as strengthen cross-sector integration.
Senna Fernandes also said that in order to stimulate the overall market vitality by encouraging visitors and optimising iconic events, a trial operation of the renovated Macau Grand Prix Museum will start in the first quarter. Completion of the renovation project has been delayed for years.
Hotel occupancy drops 72.5 percent
Meanwhile, MGTO Deputy Director Ricky Hoi Io Meng noted that last year 3.87 million visitors stayed at local hotels and guesthouses, resulting in a 72.5 percent decrease year-on-year. He also noted that the average room rate for a 3- to 5-star hotel now stands at around US$115 (918 patacas), a 32.4 percent decrease from 2019. He also pointed out that in order to attract visitors from the mainland, MGTO gave out 1.37 million consumption coupons, which cost the government around 13.6 million yuan but, according to MGTO estimates, injected 315 million patacas into the local economy. He also noted that the average duration of visitors’ stay last year was around 2.8 nights, an increase from the 2.2 nights in 2019.
Macau Government Tourism Office Deputy Director Cheng Wai Tong (from left to right) Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes and Deputy Director Ricky Hoi Io Meng address yesterday’s MGTO annual press conference at the Macau Science Centre in Nape. Photo: Prisca Tang
