Tourism sector doubts accuracy of authorities’ visitor growth data

Both these pictures, captured during the “golden week,” show two iconic sites of Macau with fewer visitors than usual

The visitor arrival data for the first three days of the golden week holiday presented by local authorities shows an unexpected increase in figures from last year, defying expectations of the public, as well as the pessimistic outlooks of the tourism and hospitality sectors.
The official figures, which include incoming foreign laborers and students, state that the region has been visited a total of 501,078 times, 427,325 times by mainlanders, between October 1 and 3. Both numbers are said to have climbed from 9.9 percent and 16.4 percent respectively.
However, the data has been treated with suspicion by the President of the Association of Macau Tourist Agents, Wu Keng Kuong, who last month forecasted a 10 to 20 percent drop in the number of Mainland Chinese visitors travelling on package tours, as well as another possible fall in the number of individual tourists.
Wu told the Times that the proportion of imported workers and students might have led to a reduction in the accuracy of the actual data concerning the influx of tourists, as both numbers have increased from last year. In addition, he also noted that among the visitors, there could be some non-local workers residing in Zhuhai who have to make the cross-border commute.
In addition, the association’s president claimed that mainland holidaymakers in general choose overseas destinations, because of the length of the seven-day vacation. The partial relaxation of visa regulations, along with favorable exchange rates have further diminished the appeal of the two special administrative regions, and as a result, mainland tours to Japan and Korea surged this year, he said.
Sociology scholar at the Macau Polytechnic Institute, Larry So, agreed with Wu’s remarks, saying that more affluent mainland tourists tend to be prone to reaching out further abroad in their choice of destinations, which were comparatively more attractive.
“People who have been to Macau for once or twice might consider travelling beyond Hong Kong and Macau to Japan and Korea,” he told the Times. “Those countries are also trying to snatch tourists from other countries.”
He added: “Tourists willing to spend more might be lured away to those countries, while those with less money to spend come to Macau.”
Still according to Mr So, the region’s endeavors to encourage inbound tourists to stay overnight could be dampened by economic hotels across the border. The scholar noted that Zhuhai’s more affordable hotels could form alternate accommodation options for mainland tourists, who could wake up early to enter into the territory and return to their accommodation across the border at night.
The scholar urged the society to concentrate more on overnight visitor data, which was more pertinent when gauging the benefits of inbound visitors to the economy.
“Looking at visit numbers alone – the pursuit of such numbers is meaningless, as they are not linked to revenue increase,” he said. “Conversely, at least the hotel and catering industries would see their earnings increase if visitors stayed longer, or even overnight.”
A total of 147,376 visitors arrived through the territory’s seven checkpoints on the first day of the week-long vacation, followed by 179,810 and 173,892 during the following two days, according to the Tourist Office, citing data from police authorities.