Residents become tourists on subsidized community tours

Several hundred local residents toured Macau yesterday under a government subsidy program that aims to get local tour guides working again. The residents took on the role of tourists, who have been unable to visit Macau for months because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Launched a month ago, the “Macao Ready Go! Local Tours” are proving popular with families and middle-aged couples. The number of tour groups yesterday for one of the tours – code MA-A – numbered 20 with up to 40 participants per group.
Tour code MA-A is part of the six community-based tours in the scheme, and takes residents to the Lin Zexu Memorial Museum, the Handover Gifts Museum, Rua do Cunha and Coloane Village.
The tour is the cheapest of the 15 total tours available under the program, costing Macau residents 18 patacas and non-residents 298 patacas.
Nine itineraries for leisure tours have costs of up to 138 patacas for residents and 418 patacas for non-residents.
Upon visiting a travel agency that is affiliated with the government’s scheme, a participant is handed a brochure in Chinese with all the details regarding the 15 itineraries. According to the Times’ observations, some agencies were not keen to accommodate English-speaking participants. Staff said the tours were only conducted in Cantonese, and did not discuss further details.
At another travel agency, would-be participants are also handed a brochure in Chinese. The customer is asked to choose their preferred itinerary based on the photos before an English version of the tour is printed for them.
After registering, the allocated tour guide calls the participant two days prior to the tour date to remind them of the pick-up point and time.
Participants are given two options for the pick-up and drop-off location: either the Outer Harbor Ferry Terminal or the Taipa Ferry Terminal.
Most tours start from 8:30 a.m., including the community-based tours. On the day of the tour, the tour guide calls the participant an hour prior to the meeting time.
Yesterday, a number of tour groups gathered at the Outer Harbor Ferry Terminal while waiting for the tour bus to arrive from the Taipa Ferry Terminal.
As observed by the Times, the majority of participants at yesterday’s MA-A tour were senior citizens, middle-aged couples or families with young children or infants.
During the tour, a 100-pataca smart card is distributed for food and beverage consumption.
Many of these consumption cards were used at one Chinese bakery selling Macau’s famous almond cookies and egg rolls. This particular store was offering a buy one, get one free promotion on some items yesterday.
Participants are given an hour and 15 minutes for lunch, during which time they are allowed to use the voucher at any store with an MPay console.
They are also given the option to either choose to continue with the tour and head off to Coloane or leave immediately after giving back the consumption voucher.
In one of the tour groups yesterday, out of 29 participants, only five chose to head to Coloane to visit the Coloane Fishing Village and Sam Seng Temple.
The government-sponsored program is being seen as lifeline to tour guides, who had been without business – and in many cases pay – since the Chinese Lunar New Year.
According to one tour guide who has been in the industry for 17 years, the scheme allows them to give one tour per week.
“There are many tour guides [in Macau] so we have to rotate. We only do one tour per week,” the tour guide said.
“The weekends are the busiest days,” she added. “There are also tours on the weekdays, but not that many.”
Questioned as to whether an English tour guide was available upon request, she remarked, “if the majority of the participants are English speakers then I believe [travel agencies] can arrange that. But it isn’t usual.”
The project is tailored to provide residents with budget travel plans and the opportunity to learn more about local communities and tourism products.
According to the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), the scheme also aims to lead to the progressive resumption of tourism activities in Macau in parallel with the city’s scheme for economic recovery.
Mak Mak, the face of Macau tourism, was also present at different sites to greet the residents-turned-tourists. The black-faced spoonbill, featuring shades of red, yellow and blue, has been officially declared the mascot of MGTO and promotes the city for tourism purposes.
Each participant is subsidized 280 patacas per tour and is entitled to a maximum subsidy of 560 patacas granted by the project.
One of the participants said, “the leisure tour is really great, especially the one that involves this new [installation project] at an integrated resort. But there were a huge number of people there when we went.”
“It’s been several years [since I’ve been] to Coloane,” said another. “It’s nice to be here and since I’m here now, I’ll purchase some salted fish.”
The tour groups had health guidelines to follow, such as presenting a Macau health code upon visiting some museums. To practice social distancing, groups had to wait outside the museum when it reached maximum capacity.
About three groups were allowed in at one time.
The government had previously stressed that operators would be reminded about the general sanitization procedures and measures required.
Upon boarding the tour bus, passengers were required to sanitize their hands before being handed a bottle of water.
“Macao Ready Go! Local Tours” will be held until September 30. Residents can sign up at the outlets of all travel agencies involved in the project.