In her written interpellation released yesterday, lawmaker-cum-unionist Ella Lei Cheng I urged the government to assess and review its current measures aiming to diversify the city’s sourcing of visitors, considering that the percentage of foreign visitors to Macau in relation to the total number of visitors is still low.
Lei noted that according to official data, visitor arrivals from the three Chinese regions of the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan accounted for 94.8 percent of last year’s total number of 28.21 million visitor arrivals to Macau, while foreign visitor arrivals made up the remaining 5.2 percent.
According to Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) data, visitor arrivals from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan accounted for 67.5 percent, 25.5 percent and 1.8 percent of Macau’s total visitor arrival number last year.
Last year’s number of mainland, Hong Kong and foreign visitor arrivals returned to 68.2 percent, 97.8 percent and 47.6 percent of the corresponding levels in pre-pandemic 2019, according to the DSEC data.
Lei also noted that according to the official data, visitors from the Philippines, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the United States, and Singapore (by order) ranked the top among last year’s foreign visitors.
According to the DSEC data, Macau recorded 314,161 visitor arrivals from the Philippines last year, accounting for 21.5 percent of all foreign visitor arrivals.
In her interpellation, Lei asked the government whether it has come up with new measures aiming to raise its effectiveness in attracting more foreign visitors and expanding the sourcing of foreign visitors, particularly those from Europe and Northern America.
Caption: Undated file photo of Macau lawmaker Ella Lei Cheng I. - Photo courtesy of Macau Legislative Assembly (AL)
