The Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) announced in a statement yesterday that the Tourism Development Committee (CDT) held its second plenary meeting of this year at the Macau Science Centre in Nape on Friday.
According to the statement, the meeting was headed by Lei Wai Nong, secretary for Economy and Finance and committee chairperson.
The statement said that during a presentation of an overview of the city’s current tourism situation, the figures showed a considerable rise in tourism-related numbers in the first nine months.
The statement added that visitor arrivals totalled 5.756 million, a year-on-year “surge” of 43.2 percent, while the average length of visitors’ stay was 1.6 days. Moreover, the accumulative volume of overnight-stay visitors increased by 61.3 percent, exceeding 2.904 million, while the average length of stay of overnight visitors was 3.1 days. The statement also noted that overnight hotel guests rose by 111.7 percent, or 5.04 million, while the average length of stay of hotel overnight guests was 1.8 nights. Hotels’ average room occupancy rates from January to October ranged between 40 and 60 percent, the statement added.
The statement pointed out that visitor numbers have recovered within a short time due to the loosening of travel restrictions and MGTO’s promotional campaigns, showing an increase in visitor arrivals in recent months, with the average number of daily visitor arrivals between October 20 and November 10 reaching 25,168.
The statement added that there has been an upward trend of the market segment of visitations by mainlanders aged between 15 and 24 in the first nine months, with MGTO adopting “precision-marketing strategies” based on the social media habits of target visitors. Considering the visitor arrivals from January to September 2021, the statement also said that MGTO will highlight the city’s mega events and activities slated for this and next month to attract more visitors.
The statement also pointed out the office’s “four major work goals in 2022”, which are expanding the spectrum of visitor sources to revive the tourism and service industries, stimulating the local economy, deepening cross-sector integration of “tourism +”, and fostering quality tourism development and deepening regional cooperation.
The statement underlined that MGTO also briefed CDT members on the first review study report for the Macau Tourism Industry Development Master Plan, adding that the office plans to pursue six areas in the future, which are “tourism products and facilities, quality tourism and collaboration, precision marketing, urban construction, smart technology, and regional and international cooperation”.
This handout photo provided by MGTO on Friday shows the participants in this year’s second plenary meeting of the Tourism Development Committee, which was held at the Macau Science Centre in Nape.
