CNY visitors prior pandemic outbreak at A Ma Temple
Director of the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) Helena de Senna Fernandes has admitted that she is not so hopeful of a high tourist arrival during the Spring Festival, expecting that it will only reach a daily number of 16,000 to 20,000 during the period.
Fernandes announced the arrival projection for Chinese New Year (CNY) yesterday in an annual media briefing held by MGTO at the Macau Science Center.
“It is a low possibility that the overall tourism arrival will exceed 200,0000 during the week of CNY holiday [from February 11 to 17]. We are expecting it to stand around or over 100,000,” Fernandes acknowledged.
The already-cautious forecast for this year’s CNY visitor arrival — once realized — will represent a significant drop from last year’s tally.
In 2020, the city registered 261,069 tourist arrivals during the seven-day Spring Festival from January 24 to 30, down a significant 78.3% from 1,201,912 in the corresponding period of 2019. The drop is mainly driven by the impact of the pandemic.
The pessimistic outlook for this year’s CNY is built upon an anticipated lowered travel intention into Macau — which has been cooled by the recent Covid-19 outbreaks in China and the travel advisories issued by China’s municipal governments advising their residents to avoid unnecessary travel during the festival to minimize contagion risk.
“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 added.
Regarding the occupancy rate, Fernandes said the MGTO had just compiled the data from local accommodations and estimated the overall rate to be around 30%.
“The number for the three-star to five-star hotels fares better, with some of them passing the 30% point,” she added.
She also addressed the media regarding the fact that the MGTO had noticed a drop in tourist arrivals recently before the Spring festival, speculating that most visitors are indisposed to visit Macau in the current period and spend the festival in a quarantine facility.
Despite Fernandes’s not-
-so-promising forecast, some chiefs of Macau’s casino conglomerates earlier expressed their high expectation about their businesses during the forthcoming CNY.
President of Sands China Ltd Wilfred Wong believes there will still be a good number of tourists visiting Macau from Guangdong Province for the festival, whilst Wynn Macau Ltd president and executive director Ian Coughlan said he is anticipating the CNY occupancy rate to be on par with that of Golden Week in October last year.
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