Macau sees ‘growing’ proportion of foreign visitors, says MGTO

The proportion of foreign visitors to Macau is “gradually growing” with a trend towards individual travelers, a local tourism official disclosed yesterday.

On the sidelines of an art event yesterday, Deputy Director Cheng Wai Tong of the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) gave this report, adding that this summer, the city will still mainly rely on tourists from the Chinese mainland.

However, the recovery of foreign group tours is not being maintained, due to various factors, such as negotiations with the foreign tourism industry, international flight recovery and air ticket pricing, Cheng explained.

In response to the situation, the MGTO will further promote Macau in foreign source markets and consider the possibility of including neighboring islands, such as Guishan Island, in itineraries for foreigner site visits. The use of the 144-hour special visa to Guangdong Province to promote island tours will also be considered.

Although the average length of stay of tourists in the first half of the year decreased by 0.1 nights year-on-year, Cheng saw a longer stay period than the average in 2019. In addition, Covid-19 quarantine periods of tourists were counted as hotel stays, which explains the longer stay last year.

In a statement, the Office of Secretary for Economy and Finance Lei Wai Nong noted that, in the first half of the year, the city saw over 11.6 million arriving visitors, with “obviously increased” per-head consumption and hotel occupancy rate.

It further highlighted that from January to July 15, the MGTO invited over 800 people from the tourism industries, the media and the social media circle in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea and Portugal to visit in order to promote Macau. Meanwhile, a recent tourism industry expo was also used as a bridge to promote local communities to exhibitors and participants.