MGTO to add a stronger focus on the Islamic countries’ market

The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) will have a stronger focus and increase its promotion aiming at Islamic countries, namely those of the so-called Gulf Cooperation Council, the director of the MGTO, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, said yesterday on the sidelines of the press conference that unveiled this year’s Macao International Travel (Industry) Expo (MITE).

Senna Fernandes noted that following the recent visits and seminars held by MGTO in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, the office aims to explore the markers of Islamic countries further as a potential way to expand international visits to Macau.

She noted that for this to happen, Macau needs to transform itself and be able to cater to this kind of visitor, namely by providing more and better options for Halal food as well as adjusting some of the hotel facilities to be more “Muslim-friendly,” she said, adding that besides the international markets, which are an important share of tourist worldwide, doing so can also improve Macau’s relation and market sources in the mainland, particularly with the western provinces that have a strong Islamic influence and traditions.

For this reason, the 13th edition of MITE will also include special links to promoting Halal food and workshops dedicated to the hotel industry on pursuing a Muslim-friendly certification.

On other international markets, Senna Fernandes remarked that the government would continue to pursue further promotions and links in Europe, the Asian markets, and the Portuguese-speaking countries, also eyeing business visitors from these parts of the world.

3 million international visitors is the first goal

Questioned by the media on the target number of international visitors to Macau, Seanna Fernandes remarked that the main goal continues to reach 3 million international visitors annually.

“Obviously [our main goal is to] at least go back to 3 million [international visitors] a year. And then, our targets for the future would definitely be more than 3 million a year. We understand there will still be a lot of work to do, not just on the tourism side, but we hope to work with different airliners, those that fly directly to Macau as well as those that fly into Hong Kong and maybe eventually even those that fly into [other] Greater Bay Area (GBA) cities.”

She also added that establishing links and relationships with different sources is essential as China is currently allowing visa-free entries for many different countries, and this is also a policy that Macau can take advantage of, particularly within the GBA.

Last year, Macau received over 2.4 million international visitors, some 20% more than the initial goal set to 2 million.

No forecast figure for visitors over the Easter holidays

When the media questioned the MGTO director about a forecast figure for the number of visitors arriving in Macau during the Easter holidays, the director said there was no clear figure for the time being.

She noted that the holiday is not observed on the mainland, so the number of visitors is not expected to increase more than on a normal weekend.

Still, she advanced that the goal is to reach the same as last year or slightly more.

“We haven’t done a final projection yet. But I hope it will be at least the same as last year, if not more. We’re not expecting big numbers from mainland China because this is not a mainland China holiday season. But we would definitely hope to attract more international visitors during Easter to come to Macau and that’s what we’re working on.”

Last year, the visitor figures for Easter recorded an average of slightly above 110,000 per day, with the highest figure recorded on Saturday (122,235).