Council suggests Friday start for e-voucher redemption

The Taipa and Coloane Community Service Consultative Council has proposed that the redemption period for the newly launched consumption vouchers begin on Friday evenings to encourage more spending and enhance the campaign’s effectiveness.

The council recently held a regular meeting where committee member Leong Chi Hang proposed suggestions to optimize the new phase of the consumption campaign.

Among his recommendations was a “high-spend, high-reward” incentive strategy, in which higher purchase amounts would yield larger face values for drawn vouchers.

He cited residents’ feedback indicating that in the past, whether spending MOP100 or MOP1,000, they received vouchers of the same value, which discouraged higher spending.

Leong believes that introducing this “higher spending, higher rewards” incentive would attract larger expenditures, benefiting merchants and encouraging active participation from residents.

He further recommended allowing vouchers to be used starting at 6 p.m. every Friday, rather than limiting usage to weekends.

“This change would incentivize Macau residents living in other cities within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area to return to Macau for spending on Friday evenings, as well as encourage those who were originally planning to leave Macau on Friday nights to stay and spend locally. Extending the spending window would further boost market vitality and enhance the effectiveness of the consumption promotion policy.”

Meanwhile, regarding the optimizations for the new round of the consumption campaign, such as raising the senior incentive to MOP500 and distributing “Care Cards” with MOP500 concessions to holders of disability certificates, Lei Cheok Kuan, chairman of the Industry and Commerce Federation of the Macau Central and Southern District, described these initiatives as a good start in a recent interview with Exmoo.

He emphasized that addressing the needs of seniors and vulnerable groups demonstrates the local government’s responsiveness to public opinion and its grounded approach.

Lei pointed out that September marks Macau’s tourism off-season, adding that the consumption campaign will effectively support local businesses during the market lull following summer.

However, he noted that while the timely launch of the campaign and government incentives have boosted consumer interest in the small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) market, actual business success ultimately depends on the operators themselves.

He expressed hope that the government will take further action for SMEs, such as assisting them with online promotion, expanding sourcing channels, and reducing operating costs.