Four local retailers were asked by The Macau Post Daily yesterday in the Ruins of St Paul’s area about their views on the impact of the increase in Macau’s visitor arrivals and their revenues, with half saying that although the visitor flow has been improving these days, visitors’ spending power was weaker compared to the pre-pandemic years.
Macau confirmed its first COVID-19 case in January 2020.
With the relaunching of COVID-19 test-free entry rules by the government for people entering from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland and the resumption of ferry sailings between Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Macau earlier this week, Macau recorded over 39,600 visitor arrivals on Sunday.
Lam, a female employee of a souvenir snack shop, said that thanks to the resumption of the test-free entry rules, the number of people visiting the Ruins of St Paul’s did increase “a little bit” compared to previous years when the novel coronavirus restrictions were enforced in Macau and that her turnover on Sunday increased by 20 percent. However, she was quick to add that her shoppers’ spending declined compared to 2019, with most of them “just willing to spend tens to one hundred patacas”. Lam also said that although Macau recorded over 30,000 visitor arrivals on Sunday, most of them tended to travel to Taipa which is “more beautiful, larger and attractive” than the peninsula, with just a small number of people visiting the peninsula’s UNESCO-listed Historic Centre of Macau.
Leong, who owns another souvenir snack shop in the Ruins of St Paul’s area, said that her turnover had increased by “30 to 40 percent” on Sunday, which “is still much worse than in 2019”. Leong pointed out that due to the over three-year COVID-19 pandemic when many people lost their jobs with a high number of factories shutting down in the mainland, tourists’ spending power was weaker than in 2019 even though the number of tourists has increased these days. Leong also said she hoped that the daily average of visitor arrivals during the Chinese New Year would return to that before 2019 when Macau recorded a daily average of 102,780 visitor arrivals in December.
Cheong, the female owner of another souvenir snack shop near the Ruins of St Paul’s, said she was happy that the number of tourists in Macau has increased, adding that in her perspective, the number of visitor arrivals was up 60 percent compared to before the “full opening” of Macau (the period before the resumption of test-free entry between Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau and the mainland). Cheong noted that with the resumption of ferry routes and the normal cross-border operation of “Golden Buses” between Hong Kong and Macau on Sunday, her turnover that day had increased by “40 to 50 percent”, adding that she did not have enough stock for her customers. Cheong also said that she was not worried about shoppers’ spending power as many of her regular customers were from Hong Kong who had not been able to patronise her business over the past three years.
Meanwhile, Chan, a male employee of a pharmacy in the area, said he could “feel” that while the number of people visiting the Ruins of St Paul’s neighbourhood had “significantly increased”, his shop’s turnover had only “risen slightly”. Chan also said that many tourists were asking for certain cold medicine and cough remedy brands, some of which were, however, still unavailable.
Tourists visit the Ruins of St. Paul’s area yesterday. – Photo: Yuki Lei
