Macau-bound visitors ditch ferry travel for HZMB

Six out of every 10 visitors from Hong Kong say they are dropping ferry travel to Macau in favor of the land route made possible by the delta-spanning Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB).

The findings come from a new study commissioned by the Macau Government Tourism Office on how the HZMB is changing the way tourists enter the special administrative region.

A statement issued yesterday by the tourism authority concluded that just one year after its opening the bridge has already “transformed visitors’ travel patterns.”

Aside from the HZMB and the Border Gate, visitors can also enter Macau via the Lotus Checkpoint, Outer Harbor Ferry Terminal (Macau), Taipa Ferry Terminal or the Macau International Airport.

After nine years of construction, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge opened to the public on October 23, 2018. It has already proven a popular method of transportation for some Macau-bound visitors, though it remains less utilized than the SAR’s primary port of entry, the Gongbei Border Gate.

According to official data, in the first three quarters of 2019, some 4.29 million same-day and overnight visitors used the HZMB to cross into the territory. In the same period, a total of 2.86 million visitors traveled via the Outer Harbor Ferry Terminal, 2.07 million used the Taipa Ferry Terminal and over 15.82 million people entered the Macau SAR via the Border Gate.

However, one major reason for the bridge’s use this year was its novelty factor. According to the study, visitors had primarily opted to use the bridge “out of curiosity to experience something new,” followed by other reasons such as reduced travel times and expense.

One area that warrants further examination is the bridge’s role in facilitating multi-city visits within the Greater Bay Area. The study concluded that a relatively high proportion of visitors indicated that they were willing to travel to more than one of the three jurisdictions that administer the bridge.

Some 72% of mainland visitors said that the existence of the HZMB encouraged them to visit both Macau and Hong Kong, while 60% Hong Kong visitors to Macau said they might also travel to the mainland during the same trip. Visitors to Macau said that the top four other cities they would consider visiting because of the bridge were Hong Kong, Zhuhai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

The study also found that while most visitors entered and exited the city via the same port of entry, the bridge had an effect in drawing more visitors to harness the connectivity of the Macau International Airport. For example, nearly a quarter of visitors who entered Macau via the Zhuhai-Macau Port of the HZMB left the city via the Macau International Airport.

The effect was mirrored in the opposite direction, with almost 22% of visitors who arrived in the city via the Macau International Airport leaving via the bridge.

The study was conducted through in-person surveys with visitors to Macau upon their departure, probing into their experience and appraisal of the bridge. A total of 3,070 valid questionnaires were completed between April and September this year.

In its statement yesterday, the tourism authority said it would “draw on the study report as reference for future work on tourism planning, management and destination marketing.”