Tourists disappointed with local tourism industry ‘software’

Tourists stand outside Hotel Lisboa

Macau was ranked fourth, alongside China, in the 2013 international tourism receipts list, which was published by the World Tourism Organization of the United Nations (UNWTO). However, an industry source has noted that some non-Chinese tourists are “slightly disappointed” with their visit to Macau due to the quality of service they received.
UNWTO estimated that the total export earnings generated by international tourism in the world in 2013 reached USD1.4 trillion. Receipts earned by destinations from international visitors also hit USD1159 billion, which has grown five percent compared to 2012.
The statistics has indicated that the international tourism revenue of Macau in 2013 has reached USD51.6 billion, putting it behind China’s USD51.7 billion. Compared to the figure in 2012, the number has grown around 18.07 percent.
The country that ranked first in 2013 was the United States, with international tourism revenue of USD139.6 billion. Other countries and regions in the top 10 included Spain, France, Italy, Thailand, Germany, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Turkey.
Despite Macau’s stunning achievement, a member of the tourism industry claimed that international travellers were, from time to time, disappointed with their visit to Macau.
The managing staff of a local travel agency, who spoke to the Times on the condition of anonymity, said that non-Chinese tourists usually have a higher requirement compared to the visitors from mainland China.
The majority of her agency’s clients are from overseas. Therefore, her agency has a stricter requirement when hiring staff in order to provide services that suit foreign tourists better.
“Under this condition, we are finding that some of our staff were lacking in quality. For example, there are some drivers that are impolite. Some tour guides also tried to shorten [the introduction to tourist spots] however they can. This has created difficulties for us who are in the office,” the manager said.
Our source added that these foreign tourists simply want the people receiving them to be more polite. “The requirement refers to the quality of our [staff]. What they want is very simple. They want people who receive them to have a similar level of courtesy as theirs (…) The quality of people here has slightly disappointed them.”
Furthermore, the manager reflected that some drivers and tour guides are not fond of taking foreign tourist groups, as they make less profit from it.
She also claimed that many agencies also wish to increase the number of foreign visitors, as they are not here solely for gambling. “The fact is, we really want to have the type of tourists who come here really for travelling and knowing our world heritage.”
According to her observation, the majority of the foreign visitors to Macau are from Asian countries such as Japan and Korea. She argues that gambling is not the factor that attracted these visitors to Macau. Rather it was the quietness of the city.
Following the development of the gambling industry in Macau, the new casinos also served as an attraction for them. The manager claimed that the Japanese and Korean visitors do not go there to gamble, but simply to experience the Las Vegas business style without traveling to the US.
The manager also pointed out that there are increasing numbers of visitors coming from Russia and Israel since around a decade ago.
When talking about the factors that are deterring foreigners from travelling to Macau, our source named the hotel room prices and the attitude of some members of the tourism industry.
“The prices of hotel rooms are very high. Therefore, [foreign tourists] do not stay that many days in Macau… Many of them [chose to] do a one-day trip in Macau [while traveling to nearby places like Hong Kong].”
But she has also noticed a downward adjustment of the hotel prices, due to the recent change of policy regarding mainland visitors in transit.
The manager concluded that Macau’s tourism hardware is excellent. However, the constraints on human resources have deeply affected the industry, which in turn has affected the quality of services it provides.