The Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) is set to aim for five strategic focuses to accelerate the city’s tourism recovery, shooting for a target of 6 to 10 million tourist arrivals in the year of 2021, director of MGTO Helena de Senna Fernandes said in the annual media briefing yesterday.
Fernandes regards the goal as a huge feat, as “it warrants [strong promotional] efforts [by MGTO],” especially when considering the daily tourist arrival averages around 10,000 in January 2021.
She acknowledged that it is “hard” to forecast the yearly arrival for 2021 and MGTO has to be more prudent about this year’s projection, given the fickle nature of Covid-19 — as reflected in daily arrivals climbing to peaks in Christmas and New Year holidays last year but dropping since January 2021 due to fresh outbreaks in mainland China.
“We are hoping that visitor arrivals pick up following the Chinese New Year (CNY), and also after [a significant number of people receive] vaccination,” Fernandes remarked.
In yesterday’s briefing, directors of MGTO spelled out the achievements of the organization in 2020, as well as its strategic planning for 2021.
In the year of 2020, overall visitor arrivals amounted to 5.9 million in 2020, down a whopping 85% year-on-year due to the pandemic, Ricky Hoi, deputy director of MGTO said as he gave the annual statistics in the briefing.
Fernandes further broke down the tally, saying: “The 3 million [of the annal number of 5.9 million were] generated from January 2020. Simply put, in the following 11 months last year, we […] only received around 2 million or so arrivals, which is a very low figure.”
Of all tourists, almost all, or 96.7%, hailed from the Greater China markets, including Mainland China, Hong Kong, and the Taiwan region. For international source markets, Korea continued to be the top, contributing more than 44,000 visitors in 2020, followed by 32,000 from the Philippines.
Total visitor expenditure from January to September 2020 totaled USD5.15 billion — USD3.7 billion from gaming revenue and USD1.4 billion from other industries. The aggregate represented an 83.2% drop from the same period last year.
The five strategic focuses
In order to draw 6 to 10 million tourist arrivals in 2021, chiefs of MGTO vowed to work hard on the five specific strategies.
Firstly, MGTO will bolster the “tourism +” cross-sector integration, to create a stronger synergy between Macau’s tourism industry and MICE, culture, e-commerce and sports industries.
“In partnership, the tourism industry can act as an engine to help accelerate the development of other industries,” Fernandes said, adding that the collaboration will extend to other novel industries as well.
The second focus will centre on Macao Grand Prix Museum, with its trial operation expected to open in the first quarter of 2021 and create novel travel experiences to entice holidaymakers.
The museum cannot open at full gear as the current quarantine regulations make it impossible for the specialized technician to come from Hong Kong to Macau to carry out the weekly maintenance work, Fernandes explained.
The other three strategies will involve launching various promotions to drive visitation, optimizing tourism planning and policy, and enhancing government service to accelerate the development of tourism industry.
The government budget rationed for MGTOs’s daily operation totals MOP370.7 million, down just 1% from last year.
Meanwhile, the Investment and Administrative Development Expenses (PIDDA) for MGTO will be at nearly MOP42 million, down 74% from last year — the majority of which was allocated for the construction of the Grand Prix Museum last year, which has already been completed. The tourism fund is budgeted at 979.3 million, down 19% year-over-year, due to the reduced tourism profit.
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