Macau’s summer holiday visitor arrivals hit a monthly record high of 3.65 million in August this year, slightly higher than the same period in pre-pandemic 2019 of 3.62 million, and Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes told reporters in Hong Kong yesterday that she did not expect the same hotel occupancy and other visitor-related figures for the Christmas holiday, but she still hoped that this month’s figures would be close to those of 2019, stressing that MGTO “will continue to work hard to do the rest of the job [for this year] well”.
In August this year, Macau’s 144 hotels recorded 1.26 million guests, or 99.7 percent of the figure reached in August 2019. The average hotel occupancy rate stood at 91.3 percent in August this year, compared to 93.0 percent in the same month of 2019, according to official statistics.
Speaking to reporters yesterday at Shun Tak Centre in Hong Kong, the tourism chief briefed reporters on the festive season’s activities and promotion campaigns, including the month-long “Fancy Treats at Your Fingertips” promotional webpage limelight offering 450 special offers by the city’s six integrated resort (IR) operators and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in celebration of the 25th Anniversary of Macau’s return to the motherland; as well as the annual highlight of the year – the 80-odd-day “Light Up Macao” promotion taking place from this Saturday through February 28 next year, with the aim of leading tourists and residents alike to visit different local neighbourhoods and participate in different large-scale light installations and interactive games.
She also said: “Late this month, the government, in addition to the preparations being made for the first performance on December 28 at a brand-new outdoor concert venue in Cotai, MGTO will also hold a firework display on the evening of December 25, i.e., Christmas Day.”
In response to concerns about the carrying capacity of Macau’s tourism, Senna Fernandes said that compared to 2019, Macau now has more hotel guestrooms than in the pre-pandemic level – according to the latest MGTO statistics. At the end of October this year, the total number of hotels in Macau stood at 146 with a total number of around 44,000 guestrooms, most of them in 5- and 4-star hotels. At the same time, according to Senna Fernandes, other ancillary facilities such as event venues and tourist attractions have also increased, because of which, she said she remained confident about Macau’s current tourism carrying capacity.
However, Macau’s tourism chief was quick to admit that the key issues of Macau’s tourism capacity are the surge in visitor arrivals during peak seasons and the over-concentration of tourists at particular tourist attractions, underlining that the government has already started to solve or improve some of the capacity problems, including a raft of arrangements involving the Transport Bureau (DSAT) as well as bus, taxi and other operators in the run-up to the holidays, “so we all believe that we are all well equipped for receiving our tourists”.
With the gradual return of foreign visitor arrivals to the pre-epidemic level, even exceeding the authorities’ estimate at the beginning of this year of two million, according to Senna Fernandes, MGTO has launched a chat robot named “Macau Smart Tourism Service” on its website and the “Experience Macau” mobile app earlier this year to respond to the lack of foreign language tour guides in Macau with text input enquiry functions, apart from traditional and simplified Chinese characters, also in English, Korean and Thai: “In fact, in our past practice, we have always allowed travel agencies to formally apply to the government to import tour guides speaking certain languages, but we have been very cautious in approving these applications”.
Senna Fernandes made the remarks after yesterday’s kick-off ceremony of the months-long “Hang Out in Macau with Snoopy @ Grand Lisboa Palace” themed event.
According to official statistics, Macau’s foreign visitor arrivals, i.e., those not from the Chinese mainland, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and China’s Taiwan region, surged by 85 percent to 1.88 million in the first 10 months of this year, recovering to 73.1 percent of the level in the first 10 months of 2019.
GLP & Snoopy join forces to offer visitors ‘unforgettable’ winter holiday
Meanwhile, jointly organised by SJM Resorts and TurboJET, the Snoopy-themed event at the Grand Lisboa Palace (GLP) integrated resort in Cotai, which runs through February 12, aims to provide local and visitors alike with an unforgettable winter holiday through a raft of themed attractions, culinary delights and enjoyable drinks, limited-edition souvenirs, workshops and accommodation packages featuring the iconic characters from the Peanuts comic book, according to a SJM statement, which added that Snoopy will also accompany TurboJET passengers travelling to and from Hong Kong and Macau during the event.
Both Senna Fernandes and SJM Managing Director Daisy Ho Chiu Fung, who is also an executive director and the deputy managing director of Shun Tak-China Travel Ship Management Limited, said in their respective speeches they believed that the event would attract more tourists to treat themselves in different parts of Macau, while, at the same time, the event was also demonstrating SJM’s advantage in having integrated resources at its disposal and its ongoing efforts to promote regional tourism cooperation.
In addition, a nine-metre-tall Snoopy is on display on top of the Macau Tower Convention and Entertainment Centre façade in Nam Van.
SJM Managing Director Daisy Ho Chiu Fung, who is also an executive director and the deputy managing director of Shun Tak-China Travel Ship Management Limited, addresses yesterday’s kick-off ceremony for the months-long “Hang Out in Macau with Snoopy @ Grand Lisboa Palace” themed event, at Shun Tak Centre in Hong Kong.
Charlie Brown and Snoopy, iconic characters from the Peanuts comic book, show up at Grand Lisboa Palace in Cotai yesterday.
Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes speaks to reporters at Shun Tak Centre in Hong Kong yesterday. – Photos: Yuki Lei
