Tourism fares well in March, still needs local boost: Fernandes

The daily visitor arrival in March is satisfactory, but the local tourism market still needs the boost offered by local residents to recover during the pandemic, stated the director of the MGTO Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes at the trial opening ceremony of the Macao Grand Prix Museum on March 19.
“March has fared pretty well in terms of visitor arrivals. The daily visitor arrivals in March peaked at around 31,000 on one day,” Fernandes said in her address to the media.
As of now, the tourist group visa to Macau has not been reinstated by the central government. Fernandes posited that the market still requires local spending for a much-needed boost.
Fernandes called on local residents to actively participate in the MOP120 million domestic travel program, part of the third round of stimulus package announced by the government last week.
Through the aforementioned program, Macau residents will be granted a subsidy of MOP280 and MOP200 to encourage spending on domestic tours and local accommodation, respectively, to support the city’s tourism industry.
The scheme is also intended to encourage local tourism companies to conceive more novel travel offerings to provide a more diverse travel experience to local residents.
When asked by the media if Macau was planning to form a quarantine-free travel bubble with other low-risk countries and regions, Fernandes said there is currently no plan to do so at the MGTO level.
Last week, Taiwan and Palau inked an agreement to launch a travel bubble with each other, starting from April 1. HT