Discounted flights lure international tourists

Macau’s initiatives to boost international visitation have paid dividends, with bookings for discounted flights tailored to global tourists surpassing 70,000 by Q2 of 2024.

The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) said the government has allocated MOP235 million this year to support these efforts, which include collaborations with Air Macau and other international airlines.

This has facilitated ticket discounts, buy-one-get-one-free offers, and discounts on multi-destination tickets for international flights from markets like Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, and North America.

These travel incentives are part of the government’s broader strategy to attract more international visitors to the city.

Besides the special airfare deals, the MGTO has also extended offers on cross-border transportation, hotel accommodation, dining, entertainment, and show tickets.

“To expand the high-value tourist segment and entice more visitors with spending potential to explore Macau, the MGTO will persist in actively exploring both domestic and international tourist source markets,” the tourism office said.

The results are already evident. Initial data shows Macau saw about 25.94 million visitors in the first nine months of the year, a 30.2% increase compared to the same period last year.

This represents a rebound to 85.9% of pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

There were nearly 1.68 million international travelers during this time frame, a 95.2% increase year-on-year, though still only 70.8% of the international visitor number from the same period in 2019.

The MGTO also highlighted the success of travel roadshows held in six major overseas tourist markets, which attracted over 880,000 attendees and 870 travel industry operators.

The same tourism authorities said it is undertaking wide-ranging efforts to further promote Macau’s tourism offerings and accelerate the recovery of the tourism sector, including extensive online and offline advertising, exhibiting at international travel expos, roadshows, seminars, and familiarization trips. Victoria Chan