Most Indian tourists say they want to return to Macau

More than 70% of visitors from India are willing to visit Macau again, according to a Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) survey.

In pursuit of a wider diversity of visitor source markets, MGTO has carried out a range of studies on visitors from various international markets and differing nationalities.

This year, MGTO completed the “Study on Indian Visitors in Macau” to gain a deeper understanding of the common attributes and travel behaviors of Indian visitors in Macau. The findings will serve as a basis for MGTO to implement its destination marketing strategies and initiatives for a broader publicity effect on the Indian market.

The most striking finding of the survey was that 71% of interviewees expressed an interest in visiting Macau again in the future, while 96% stated that they would recommend that others visit Macau.

The tourism authority said it is working to diversify international visitor source markets to reduce the reliance on Macau’s primary source market, mainland China. It considers India a strategic visitor source market and has worked in recent years to draw more tourists from the country of 1.37 billion.

However, despite these efforts, reliance on Macau’s primary tourist source market has continued to grow in recent years. The proportion of visitors from mainland China edged up to 70.55% in 2018, compared to 68.06% in 2017 and about 66% in the previous two years.

The tourism authority is also working to lengthen the stay of visitors in Macau. In 2018, the average length of stay held steady in year-on-year terms at 1.2 days. For the first 11 months of this year, growth in same-day visitors (23.8%) far outstripped growth in overnight visitors (2.4%).

Despite these setbacks, the tourism authority believes that India is among Macau’s international visitor markets that hold the greatest growth potential. From January to November 2019, over 119,000 Indian visitors came to Macau, with 75% of them staying overnight in the city.

The recent study on Indian tourism employed face-to-face surveys with visitors and in-depth interviews with industry operators followed by data analysis.

Other findings revealed that among the interviewed Indian visitors, over 80% opted for travel to Macau and Hong Kong in one trip, 85% were visiting Macau for the first time, 55% stayed in Macau for three days and two nights, and 47.5% visited Macau for sightseeing, followed by 37% for leisure/vacation.

In recent years, MGTO has conducted a range of visitor studies targeting different international visitor markets including India, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. Looking forward, MGTO will continue to carry out studies on visitors from different countries and regions in accordance with the direction of tourism policies and destination marketing strategies laid out by the Macau.