The government has submitted a bill which, if passed by the legislature, would legalise the hiring of foreign tour guides speaking “minority languages”*, but Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes stressed yesterday that the hiring of non-local tour guides would only serve as a supplementary measure.
The tourism chief noted during last week’s Executive Council press conference about the government-drafted bill at Government Headquarters that Macau currently has 1,758 licensed tour guides, only 17 of whom are non-locals, comprising 13 speaking Korean, three speaking Thai, and one speaking another foreign language. She did not identify that language.
In response to a concern expressed yesterday by a listener of Ou Mun Gwong Cheuhng – a current affairs phone-in programme hosted by the Chinese-language radio channel of public broadcaster TDM, Senna Fernandes pointed out during the programme that the bill was only meant to facilitate the development of new “international” sources of tourists, which did not mean that a large number of foreign tour guides would be “imported” immediately, adding that the employment of non-local tour guides was nothing new in Macau.
She also pointed out that the cost of hiring foreign tour guides by local travel agencies was “relatively” high, and that non-local tour guides could only obtain the relevant licences after arriving in Macau. She underlined that the non-local tour guides, who must also be able to communicate with the local people, would only be allowed to work in the language specified by their licences, thereby avoiding the problem of potentially overstepping the bounds of their contractual employment conditions.
In the process of hiring minority-language speaking tour guides, the MGTO will discuss the matter with the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL) and the Macao University of Tourism (UTM), while also collecting market data and, therefore, Senna Fernandes said, the bill only seeks to “rationalise” the provisions so as to better define how to hire foreign tour guides speaking languages that are not commonly known by their local counterparts.
Senna Fernandes expects daily average of 100,000-visitor arrivals today
Meanwhile, Senna Fernandes also said during the phone-in programme she expects the average daily number of visitor arrivals today, i.e., Ching Ming Festival, to reach 100,000, adding: “It is because the mainland will have a three-day holiday for Ching Ming Festival starting from Thursday [today], and the situation will be closely monitored.”
Senna Fernandes also summarised Macau’s Easter tourism numbers during the phone-in programme, noting that visitor arrivals for the Easter holidays from Friday through Monday exceeded 400,000, up nearly 20 percent year-on-year, with average daily arrivals meeting her office’s expectations, adding that mainlanders accounted for the largest number of visitors, with a daily average of 55,000, while Hongkongers averaged 37,000 daily.
Unlike in Hong Kong and Macau, Easter is not a public holiday in the Chinese mainland and China’s Taiwan region.
“International”, i.e., foreign tourists increased by nearly 80 percent year on year, with 7,200 daily arrivals, Senna Fernandes pointed out, adding that Macau’s 141 hotels recorded an average occupancy rate of 88 percent during the three-day holiday.
*In this context, the term “minority languages” (小語種) refers to languages not commonly spoken by local tour guides.
Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes (left) and Travel Industry Council of Macau (TICM) Chairman Andy Wu Keng Kuong pose during a current affairs phone-in programme, Ou Mun Gwong Cheuhng, hosted by Ou Mun Tin Toi – the Chinese-language radio channel of public broadcaster TDM, yesterday. – Photo courtesy of TDM
A female tour guide waving a plush toy leads her group of foreign visitors through the city’s main square, Largo do Senado, yesterday. – Photo: Yuki Lei
