Interview by Yuki Lei
Macau recorded a daily average of about 114,000 visitor arrivals during the four-day Christmas holidays from last Saturday through Tuesday (Boxing Day), totalling over 456,000, and representatives of the local retail and tourism sectors told the Post yesterday that Macau’s various tourism promotion campaigns, such as the ongoing “Light up Macao 2023” event, succeeded in attracting tourists from neighbouring cities and Southeast Asian countries to celebrate Christmas in Macau, with the number of international tourists having recovered to about 80 percent of the pre-pandemic level in 2019.
Macau confirmed its first COVID-19 case in January 2020.
Macau Leisure Tourism Services Innovation Association Chairman Wong Fai told the Post in a phone interview yesterday that unlike in the past, apart from Hong Kong and international tourists, there were also many mainland tourists who visited Macau this Christmas holiday, pointing out that the number of mainland visitors accounted for half of the total number of visitor arrivals during the Christmas holiday period, with most of them from Guangdong province.
Unlike in Macau and Hong Kong, Christmas is not a public holiday in the mainland and Taiwan. The term “international” tourists refers to those from foreign countries. Consequently, it does not include visitor arrivals from the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Wong said: “Although Christmas is not a holiday in the mainland, many young mainland tourists came to Macau this year, and I believe they were longing to experience the Christmas atmosphere in Macau.” Wong added that he was quite surprised about the increase in the number of Macau’s mainland tourists during the Christmas holiday, which, he pointed out, was beyond his expectations.
In terms of international tourists, according to Wong, they came mainly from Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore and Thailand, in addition to South Korea. In order to better expand Macau’s international tourism source markets, Wong said that there was a need to increase the number of direct international flights, while also offering tourists special vacation packages, in conjunction with the city’s six integrated resort (IR) operators.
When asked about Macau’s hotel occupancy rate during the Christmas holiday, Wong said that the overall passenger flow was “ideal”, with Macau’s about 46,000 guestrooms having recorded an average occupancy rate of over 95 percent since last Saturday.
More visitors arrived in Macau during the Christmas holiday than he had expected, the chairman of The Industry and Commerce Association of Macau, Kevin Ho King Lun told the Post in a phone interview yesterday. Ho pointed out that retailers in the city’s tourist areas such as the Ruins of St Paul’s district and Coloane’s revitalised Lai Chi Van Shipyards did benefit from the unexpected large number of tourists during the Christmas holiday. However, he pointed out, businesses in neighbourhoods not frequented by tourists were adversely affected by the long holiday as many locals chose to go on trips outside the city.
Due to the overall economic situation, Ho said, people right now certainly do not spend as much as in the past, adding that mainland tourists are also affected by the current state of the economy at home, so that they are no longer shopping as much as in the past.
Concerning Southeast Asians who are understood to avoid visiting Macau due to its relatively high hotel room rates and travel to other nearby destinations instead, Ho, a local deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC), said: “Macau actually has the right conditions to build more two- and three-star hotels,” urging the government to study the feasibility of legalising homestays.
Residents and tourists take photos in front of a Christmas decoration in the city’s main square, Largo do Senado, on Christmas Day. – Photo: Yuki Lei
