The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) is launching a new promotion to encourage mainland tourists from non-Guangdong cities to visit Macau using the High-Speed Rail network. MGTO director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes announced the promotion in Hangzhou yesterday to trade representatives at a seminar focused on tourism in Macau. It was a lead-off event for the “Macao Week in Hangzhou” roadshow which commenced today.
“Our [promotional] strategy will encourage visitation from [mainland] cities with a [better] transportation network [connecting to Macau],” the director said. The tactic to focus on mainland tourists beyond the Greater Bay Area (GBA) is intended to increase the average length tourists stay in the city.
“Although Macau has welcomed a large number of tourists from Guangdong province, they have not tended to stay overnight in Macau. Holidaymakers outside Guandong province are more likely to stay overnight for several days,” she clarified. Fernandes stressed the MGTO will not apply a cookie-cutter approach to draw tourists from non-Guangdong cities. They will instead showcase a range of tourism offerings and tourist destinations, including lesser-visited tourist spots in Macau, to enable visitors from mainland regions outside GBA to have a more immersive travel experience.
The mainland cities along the High-Speed Rail line and within the GBA have been identified as regional priorities for MGTO this year.
The MGTO will focus on other cities with higher air connectivity with Macau as well, she added.
According to the latest data from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), total visitor arrivals to Macau in February 2021 stood at 427,122, down 23.3% month-to-month, yet, up 173.1% year-on-year.
There were 380,649 visitors from China in February, 250, 912 of whom hailed from Guangdong Province and accounted for roughly 65.9% of the total share. They were followed by 15, 507 visitors from Fujian Province (4.1%), and 12,641 visitors from Shanghai city (3.3%).
Yesterday, MGTO and the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) hosted a Macao tourism and Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions (MICE) presentation seminar in Hangzhou. The presentation seminar was held to promote Macau as a “healthy, safe and quality destination,” and help industry partners in Hangzhou keep tabs on tourism trends.
Throughout the seminar, Fernandes encouraged tourism industry representatives from both Macau and Hangzhou to collaborate more closely within the tourism and MICE sectors, to create new tourism offerings that encourage visitation from new sources. The “Macao Week in Hangzhou” roadshow was organized by the MGTO and commenced today.
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