The Parade for Celebration of the Year of the Snake will take place between January 31 and February 16, including two float parades this Friday and next Saturday, i.e., on the third and 11th day of the Chinese New Year (CNY), and Macau’s veteran tourism chief said yesterday that most of the performance troupes have arrived in Macau and “everyone is ready for [the parade]”.
Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes made the remarks during yesterday’s Chinese traditional blessing ceremony wishing the upcoming event good luck.
An MGTO statement yesterday pointed out that the meaning behind the theme of this year’s CNY event, Parade for Celebration of the Year of the Snake, is to symbolise that Macau, “a pearl in the palm of the motherland”, is moving forward to a “new era” of prosperity for all trades and industries under the influence of the “golden snake’s intelligence and fortune”.
The two float parades will set off from Sai Van Lake Square and Estrada Marginal da Ilha Verde (青洲河邊馬路) at 8 p.m. on Friday and next Saturday respectively, featuring 17 floats and more than 1,300 performers from Macau and elsewhere.
Senna Fernandes said: “This year, we will be seeing some first-time participants [in the annual CNY float parades], including troupes from Colombia and India, and of course, some local performers, with more than 1,300 performers in total”.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the ceremony, the tourism chief briefed the media once again on the highlights of this year’s parade: “As one of the key highlights of this year’s parade, [troupes from] four ‘Culture Cities of East Asia’ selected in 2025, comprising Macau, Zhejiang Province’s Huzhou City, Japan’s Kamakura City and South Korea’s Anseong City, will join together [in the opening performance of the parade on Friday] to present special performances, which everybody should be looking forward to.”
According to MGTO, this time the spectator stands are situated in Sai Van Lake Square, Avenida Dr Sun Yat-Sen (孫逸仙大馬路), the front square of the Kun Iam Ecumenical Centre (觀音蓮花苑) and the roundabout in front of the Macau Science Centre, as well as the viewing area of the Roman amphitheatre at the Macau Fisherman’s Wharf, providing more than 4,300 seats. The tourism chief said: “We’re sure there’ll be a lot of residents and tourists along the way, and we’re hoping to bring everyone a great show this year”.
Senna Fernandes added that appropriate arrangements would be made depending on the prevailing weather conditions.
Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes (centre) dots a lion’s eyes during yesterday’s traditional blessing ceremony at Sai Van Lake Square. – Photos: Yuki Lei
Senior officials from the Macau Government Tourism Office and other public entities, as well as performers of the Parade for Celebration of the Year of the Snake, pose during yesterday’s ceremony.
‘Slight increase in hotel room rates this year’: tourism chief
Meanwhile, journalists asked her about rising hotel room rates, to which Senna Fernandes responded that MGTO continuously monitors the rates: “If there are any rates exceeding MGTO’s benchmarks, we will have a raft of follow-up actions or penalties”. She added that MGTO has a mechanism that requires hotels to notify them prior to any rate increase: “There’s a slight increase from last year”.
The eight-day CNY Golden Week in the mainland this year runs from January 28, i.e., today to February 4, i.e., next Tuesday, and Senna Fernandes told reporters that as of last week, Macau’s hotel reservation rate had already reached 90 percent, adding she expected the hotel occupancy rate of this year’s CNY holiday to reach 95 percent: “Some days it might even go to 98-99 percent”.
She also encouraged mainland visitors to make good use of their multiple-entry Macau permits to stay in hotels in the surrounding areas of Macau, such as Hengqin, and even in some of the neighbouring cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA): “I think that in the future, we will always be moving towards the GBA development as a whole”.
According to the tourism chief, MGTO seized 186 illegal inns last year, a significant increase compared to 2023 but about the same compared to pre-pandemic 2019. She urged property owners to pay attention to whether their flats are being used by tenants or their friends to provide illegal accommodation.
