Following this past weekend’s 13th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Tourism Ministerial Meeting—hosted by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in its Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR), one of the world’s most tourism-dependent economies—I have done quite a bit of thinking and reading about the role of cultural heritage as both an object and a subject of tourism.
After covering Macau’s tourism industry firsthand for over four decades, I am convinced that cultural heritage is not merely the object of tourism (such as historic edifices and traditional folk dances). Rather, a centuries-long practice of tourism—which is precisely the case here—means that the history and culture of travel per se can become an integral part of a destination’s cultural heritage. Indeed, that is exactly what has unfolded in Macau since at least the 18th century.
When a destination has been welcoming visitors for centuries, tourism fundamentally shapes the local architecture, customs, cuisine, collective memory and, last but not least, its identity.
Cultural heritage as the “object” of tourism is what visitors are eager to see and experience. The targets of these trips comprise tangible assets such as monuments, ancient and modern architecture, and heritage sites. The UNESCO World Heritage-listed Historic Centre of Macau, the A-Ma Statue, the Maritime Museum, and The Venetian Macao resort immediately spring to mind. Intangible objects include traditional festivals, local culinary traditions, and religious rituals—such as Macau’s Catholic Procession of Our Lady of Fátima, the Taoist Na Tcha Float Parade, and Macanese fusion cuisine.
Conversely, cultural heritage acts as the “subject” of tourism because the industry itself, over decades and centuries, actively shapes the destination. In this context, cultural heritage becomes an “agent” moulding the tourist experience and even the host community’s own identity, which in Macau is proudly multicultural. Heritage dictates a destination’s perception—and perception is how tourists, and humans in general, interpret reality.
Macau’s dual nature as both an object and subject of cultural tourism began in the 18th and 19th centuries when it evolved into a recreational retreat and leisure destination for European traders. In the 1700s and early 1800s, merchants employed by foreign firms were permitted to stay in Guangzhou (then known in the West as Canton) only during specific trading seasons. In the off-season, these merchants “retreated” to Macau, transforming it into a peaceful, multicultural seaside resort.
For those interested in this era, I highly recommend Hong Kong-born writer Timothy Mo’s 733-page historical novel, An Insular Possession¹ - an extraordinary read detailing the intricacies of the First Opium War along the South China coast, featuring Macau and Canton, which touches beautifully on the beginnings of Macau’s tourism industry.
The local tourism sector received a monumental boost in 1849 when Portuguese administrators licensed the city’s first casino concessions in a desperate bid to fill empty public coffers. Since then, gaming has been the primary money spinner for Macau. Yet, even back in the 18th century, contemporary accounts show that Macau’s multicultural heritage was already a major tourist draw. Of course, it is significantly easier for casinos to generate hard cash than historic monuments—a reality that obviously remains true to this very day.
Whatever one might think of legalised gambling, Macau’s casinos (which now number 20, down from a peak of 42 in 2021) are the core engine of our tourism industry. Without them, the prosperous Macau we know today simply would not exist.
Macau’s modern tourism era was born in 1961² when the local administration declared the city a “tourism zone”. In its wake, a monopoly concession was granted to Stanley Ho Hung-sun’s STDM, whose mandate was not just to run casinos, but to build a comprehensive tourism sector from scratch. The sector’s most significant developmental leap came in 2002 when the MSAR’s first Chief Executive, Edmund Ho Hau Wah (an accountant and auditor by profession), took the bold step of ending STDM’s monopoly by liberalising the gaming industry. Following a brief transitional period, six rival operators have since run the gaming sector.
Around the same time, the Central People’s Government in Beijing made the wise decision to designate Macau a “World Centre of Tourism and Leisure”. Today, Macau ranks among the world’s top three territories regarding tourism receipts as a percentage of GDP, alongside Andorra and Aruba, with tourism accounting for around 70 per cent of its economy.³
Macau is now also firmly established among the world’s 10 most visited cities. International analysts concur that Macau’s integrated resorts and its rich cultural heritage (with cuisine being one of the most vital “ingredients” and core pillars of that culture) are the ultimate drivers of its success.
Nowadays, visitors from the Chinese mainland account for around 70 per cent of all arrivals. Macau has benefited immensely from the mainland’s economic miracle; back in the 1980s, by contrast, the vast majority of visitors arrived from Hong Kong and Japan.
In the first five months of this year, Macau welcomed 18.1 million visitor arrivals—a year-on-year increase of 11.1 per cent—though 62 per cent of them were day-trippers. In May, daily visitor arrivals averaged 112,515, equivalent to a striking 16.6 per cent of the local population, all squeezed onto a mere 33.4 square kilometres. Meanwhile, Macau’s 147 hotels (including 44 budget accommodation options) welcomed 6.0 million guests, representing a year-on-year growth of 14.3 per cent, last month.
In May, foreigners accounted for 6.7 per cent of all visitor arrivals and 9.9 per cent of hotel guests. I hope the proportion of international travellers will gradually rise to 20 per cent over the next five to 10 years, which would provide a welcome boost to our city’s global image. However, I am realistic enough to believe that one-fifth is likely the maximum Macau can achieve in the medium term, given that we will always rely on a massive pool of 1.4 billion potential visitors from the Chinese mainland, the Hong Kong SAR, and China’s Taiwan region.
Yet, thanks to this thriving industry, Macau enjoys what is, relatively speaking, the world’s highest fiscal reserves, standing at nearly 0.7 trillion patacas.
The Minister of Culture and Tourism, Sun Yeli—whose dual portfolio is a perfectly appropriate combination—addressed Saturday’s opening session of the ministerial meeting. On the sidelines, he told Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai that the Central People’s Government will fully support the local administration’s project to establish an integrated tourism and culture zone, thereby assisting Macau in raising its developmental quality and strengthening international cooperation to better integrate into the national development framework.
Saturday’s ministerial meeting, which was preceded by the two-day 67th APEC Tourism Working Group Meeting on Wednesday and Thursday, was themed “Digital Innovation, Collaborative Empowerment: Leveraging Tourism for an Asia-Pacific Community”. In his speech at Saturday’s formal opening ceremony, Minister Sun underlined the critical role of artificial intelligence (AI) in driving tourism and propelling socio-economic growth.
For Macau, sustainable growth in tourism remains indispensable to promoting the appropriate diversification of its economy. The local economy is currently navigating a somewhat bumpy transition towards deeper integration into the 11-city Greater Bay Area (comprising nine cities in Guangdong alongside the nation’s two SARs) and the acceleration of the parallel Macau-Hengqin integration process.
Consumer patterns are also shifting noticeably among both mainland visitors and locals. While Macau residents increasingly head to Zhuhai to dine and shop across its string of excellent, affordable shopping malls, mainland tourists are no longer raiding local supermarkets. Some now even prefer staying in Zhuhai hotels, where room rates are far more competitive than their Macau counterparts.
Affordability is the crux of the issue. Local shop owners complain about Macau’s prohibitively high rents, while shoppers gripe about high prices and substandard quality. In a complete reversal of the recent past, it is now the locals who descend on the well-stocked, affordable supermarkets of Zhuhai.
One can only hope that local businesses do not fall into the trap of pricing themselves out of the market. The challenge for the local commercial sector is to transition from a traditional mercantile mindset to a genuinely entrepreneurial approach. Startups launched by young entrepreneurs in the Macau-Hengqin zone offer a clear beacon of hope.
For Macau’s tourism to sustain its growth—sustainability being an inherent challenge globally—it must integrate seamlessly into the GBA, and Hengqin in particular. The local government’s target of boosting international visitor numbers can only be achieved by offering integrated, multi-destination itineraries that package Macau and Hong Kong alongside mainland GBA powerhouses like Guangzhou, Zhuhai, and the futuristic metropolis of Shenzhen (which I visited recently and was, to put it mildly, deeply impressed by). Tourists taking intercontinental flights to the GBA naturally expect a multi-city experience; Macau is undoubtedly special, but so are its neighbours.
“Of all the ports of entry to Canton, the most flourishing is that of Macau,” Sam quoted from a classic Chinese poem during his welcome speech, noting that it serves as a vivid testament to Macau’s historic role as an essential centre of commercial and cultural exchange between East and West. The Chief Executive also emphasised that hosting the APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting in Macau again after a 12-year interval holds profound significance for the city.
Furthermore, Sam invoked President Xi Jinping’s address at last year’s 32nd APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting: “We must stay true to APEC’s founding mission of promoting economic growth and improving people’s well-being, and uphold open development where everyone shares opportunities and achieves win-win outcomes.”
This hits the nail on the head. Improving the well-being of the population must always be the ultimate political objective of any responsible leader at the local, national, and global level. For me, that well-being includes offering residents and tourists alike a safe, easily accessible, affordable, and comfortable public transport network.
I would also like to see the local government accelerate the sprucing up of our city’s old quarters, some of which are in urgent need of a facelift. In this regard, Macau could learn a great deal from the GBA cities I have visited over the past few months, namely Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Zhongshan.
Cultural heritage, both as the object and subject of tourism, must be meticulously curated so that locals and visitors alike can continue to reap its rewards. Only then can Macau truly fulfil its potential and solidify its status as a fully-fledged World Centre of Tourism and Leisure.
– Harald Brüning
Footnotes
¹ Paddleless Press, 2002, ISBN 0952 4193 86
² For a comprehensive overview of Macau’s gaming industry history, see Jorge Godinho’s «Os Casinos de Macau” (Coimbra: Almedina, 2019), ISBN 978-972-40-7867-0.
³ Source: Commonwealth Union Data on Tourism-Dependent Economies
(https://www.commonwealthunion.com/the-worlds-most-tourism-dependent-economies/)
