New record-high of tourist arrivals, MGTO in talks with gaming ops to boost tourism
The SAR has reached a peak in daily visitor arrivals since the onset of the pandemic, recording over 98,000 tourists visiting the city on April 15.
With this figure, Macau has recovered to 58% of the pre-pandemic levels.
Speaking at the Legislative Assembly, Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lei Wai Nong said the city is gaining momentum from its tourism promotions and offers which have attracted travelers from the mainland and Hong Kong. Lei said tourists visiting Macau are young people, ranging from 18 to 35 years old.
The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) is communicating with the gaming concessionaires about resource allocation to promote non-gaming elements in communities, take advantage of community tourism components, and speed up the recovery of economic tourism, Lei said.
Some mainland visitors said festivals and events are among the main reasons they come to Macau, and of those, half stayed for more than three days, according to Lei.
The office has concluded that festivals and events can help encourage visitors to stay, so it will support community tourism and festival tourism.
The office has also launched a specific financial support program for “Community Economic Tourism Development” to encourage local organizations to attract visitors to their communities through special tourism activities that incorporate local traditional folk cultures, history and travel resources.
With the theme “Monthly highlight of Macau”, the government will make the most of elements like festivals, foods, sports, the creative industries, MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions), science and technology, as well as resources from the tourism industry and organizations, to launch more promotional activities.
Promotional activities for tourism with Zhuhai and Zhongshan in Hunan and Fujian are scheduled for a second season this year. The government will also hold a meeting on annual cooperation with the Guangdong and Hong Kong tourism bureaus about a brand-new multi-destination travel scheme.
Gaming operators should submit their investment and execution plans to the government annually, which can be adjusted by the government in response to needs of economic development, according to the gaming concession contracts.
No plans for another round of consumption card
Lei has said that there is no need to issue consumer cards now, but he will closely follow the economic development situation and make dynamic plans to deal with any changes.
This comes after lawmaker Pereira Coutinho called for another round of MOP8,000 consumption card.
At the plenary many lawmakers were concerned about the remaining MOP4 billion of the second MOP10 billion anti-pandemic fund measures.
Lei said the nature of the relevant funds is a contingency need. If the situation improves, the balance will be taken back to the treasury.
He said the current recovery is better than expected, and compared with other regions, it has also made progress.
Lei also said the new unemployment rate (January to March) will drop further to 3.9%, and the underemployment rate will drop to 2.7%. Staff Reporter
