Chui at the center led the Macau delegation to Hong Kong
The Chief Executive, Chui Sai On, met with the Chairman of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, Peter Lam, on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Government Information Bureau (GCS), where the two officials discussed prospects for broadening tourism cooperation between the two special administration regions.
It was agreed that the SAR authorities should work in tandem to transform Guangdong Province, Hong Kong and Macau collectively into a world-class region for tourists.
The agreement comes as a necessity for Macau’s economy as it undergoes a period of adjustment, and as the local government heeds Beijing’s economic diversification mandates.
Strengthening cooperation with Hong Kong should help Macau attract more tourists to visit, said Chui, according to the GCS statement, suggesting that multi-destination tours in Asia could bring Hong Kong visitors to Macau and vice-versa.
Peter Lam agreed that the two SARs can assist each other in promoting tourism, making reference to a recent partnership between Hong Kong and Taiwan to promote multi-destination holidays in Asia.
In addition, the completion of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge would be an important milestone in terms of promoting closer cooperation in tourism, said Peter Lam, through facilitating additional transportation routes between the two South China territories.
Also in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting was the Director of the Macau Government Tourism Office, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, the Chairman of the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong, Jason Wong, and the executive director of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, Anthony Lau.
Anthony Lau said that the total visitors to Jong Kong fell by about 2.5 percent last year, the first decrease in 12 years.
While Macau’s visitor volume has also seen marginal change, both SARs are experiencing a severe decline in visitor spending as the Times reported yesterday. DB
Visitor arrivals rebound over CNY
Information released by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that, attributable to the Chinese New Year holiday, visitor arrivals rebounded in February by 8.1 percent month-to-month, to a total of 2,644,289.
However, this still represented a 1.2 percent shortfall over the same month in 2015. Same-day visitors dropped by 7.6 percent year-on-year to 1,454,944, whereas overnight visitors rose by 7.9 percent to 1,189,345.
Visitors from mainland China totaled 1,799,522 last month, down by 5.2 percent year-on-year, coming mainly from Guangdong Province (897,096), followed by Zhejiang Province (57,817) and Shanghai (53,261).
Visitors from the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan arrived in greater numbers this year than in February 2015, seeing respective rises of 12 percent, 4.8 percent and 16.6 percent respectively.
In the first two months of 2016 visitor arrivals totaled 5,090,165, down by just 1 percent year-on-year. The decline was led by visitors from mainland China, of which 3.1 percent fewer have arrived in Macau so far this year.
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