The three-day Mid-Autumn Festival has brought 46,727 visitors to the city, a figure that is considered low for one of the most important holidays in the second half of the year.
The downturn may have been due to many Chinese localities requesting that residents stay put or reduce travel during the holidays in a bid to stop the spread of coronavirus.
Currently, 33 cities in China are under partial or full static management because of Covid-19 outbreaks, including seven provincial capitals and one municipality, affecting 65 million residents in total, Caixin reported.
The first two days of the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holidays attracted around 32,085 visitors to Macau, with 16,540 of these arriving on the first day, according to data published by the Public Security Police Force.
Daily data as of 9 p.m. yesterday showed 14,642 visitor arrivals to the city.
According to the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), before the holidays, from September 3 to 9, a total of 114,113 tourists arrived in Macau, a daily average of 16,302, representing a 54.5% increase compared to the daily average of 10,690 visitors in August.
“Although visitor numbers have increased, the figures are almost the same as the numbers of the weekends after Zhuhai and Macau resumed quarantine-free customs clearance in early August,” said Andy Wu, president of the Travel Industry Council of Macau.
Wu considers the low arrivals to be related to the shorter validity period of nucleic acid tests (NAT) between Macau and the mainland, and the mainland government’s request that residents reduce travel during the three days of the Mid-Autumn Festival, weakening tourists’ confidence in visiting Macau.
“According to past experience, normally, the visitor numbers would pick up quickly after the government eases the valid period of customs clearance,” Wu explained.
The sector leader then expressed his expectation that the government would communicate with the mainland government to relax the pandemic prevention policies related to customs clearance at the right time, as soon as possible.
Currently, the policy – which has been in place for a month – states that people travelling from Macau to Zhuhai must return a negative NAT result taken within 24 hours.
Macau’s hotel sector insiders have lamented over the impact on the Mid-Autumn Festival, finding it hard to tell whether the occupancy rate target of 70-80% suggested last week could be achieved amid the Covid relapses in mainland China.
In light of these difficulties, as well as visa issues, current reports have hotel bookings for the festive period at about 40-50% capacity.
Meanwhile in China, enthusiasm for Mid-Autumn travel has remained high despite the pandemic.
Data from an online ticketing service platform shows that, as of August 30, Mid-Autumn Festival holiday orders had increased 137% compared to the same period of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, and orders for airline tickets and train tickets increased nearly two times and five times, respectively, according to a report issued by the Global Times.
Tourism plans for Golden Week
The MGTO is in discussion with the travel sector about promoting family activities during autumn and winter. The bureau also hopes to hold some exhibitions during the China National Day holiday.
MGTO deputy director Cheng Wai Tong expressed hope that visitor arrivals could return to a daily number between 20,000 and 40,000 during the October Golden Week. Staff reporter
