Tourism | Hong Kong riot affects package tours

Data from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) shows that 580,000 people visited Macau during January on package tours, which represents a 31.2 percent decrease compared to last January. Free package tours are expected to be discontinued, Exmoo News reported.
According to the Macau Tour Guide Promotion Association, 10 percent of front-line tour guides have recently left their jobs to work as taxi drivers, real estate agents or in the beauty industry.
Zhu Ming Xia, president of the tour guide association, remarked that complaints from customers in Hong Kong, the incident in which a mainland tourist was beaten to death in Hong Kong in 2015, and the political environment (in a clear reference to the Mong Kok riot) are crucial reasons behind the decline.
“The package tours always visit both Hong Kong and Macau. If people don’t go to Hong Kong, consequently they don’t come to Macau,” said Zhu.
On the other hand, the free package tours have been put under the spotlight. Ho Iat Seng, president of the Legislative assembly, as well as Helena de Senna Fernandes, director of the Tourism Office, previously expressed their hopes of curtailing the flow of low-spending visitors, and of stopping the free package tours.
Ho said: “The free package tour customers don’t do any shopping […], if you don’t have money, then you shouldn’t travel.”  Staff reporter