More than 37,000 tourists entered Macau on the first day of the Golden Week. Although the number of visitors dropped in the days that followed, the city guaranteed the best results of the festive season since the beginning of the pandemic, with a daily average of 28,611 in the first five days. Sources linked to tourism are hopeful for the fourth quarter of the year, especially due to the return of group tours and electronic visas for those coming from Mainland China.
This is the most popular national holiday in Macau since the beginning of the pandemic, according to data released by the Public Security Police Corps. The number of entries in the first three days of this Golden Week was 37 thousand, 28 thousand and 25 thousand, respectively.
Numbers that are 10 times higher than those recorded last year, shared the Directorate of Tourism Services. Regarding the 2022 Spring Festival, Macau received twice as many visitors in these October holidays. Although it is still far from the daily average recorded in 2019, the president of the Federation of Industry and Commerce of Macau Central and Southern Districts, Lei Cheok Kuan, describes this phenomenon as the “long-awaited popularity” that the city needed.
Lei reveals to PLATAFORMA that several restaurants have achieved profits in the order of 60/70 percent of pre-pandemic values. “Optimism is high, as the market has become more popular. Despite the consumption power being weaker than it used to be, there is still some popularity. We all hope it continues to grow grain by grain,” he says.
Andy Wu, president of the Macau Tourism Industry Association, also comments that visitors stay for a longer period. The association leader explains that some of the hotels on the Cotai Strip must register occupancy rates of 90 percent, predicting that by the end of the week it will be between 70 and 80 percent. Wu believes that as long as the pandemic situation continues to stabilize and follows the current evolution of the Golden Week, the volume of visitors will remain above 20,000 a day after the end of the national holiday. A number that “brings some hope to the industry and to local small and medium-sized companies”.
RETURN FROM GROUP TOURS
Regarding the return of group tours and electronic visas for visitors to the mainland at the end of this month or beginning of November, the authorities say that they will continue to offer the necessary support to guarantee the possibility of these group trips. In a first phase, these visits will be available to residents of four provinces and one city.
Wu is of the opinion that the implementation of these measures will also increase the desire to visit Macau, predicting that the daily average of entries will rise to 40,000.
“Group travel is one of the measures we most anticipate. They are different from individual trips”, says Lei Cheok Kuan. According to the official, “most tourists who travel alone return on the same day, while day trippers stay in Macau for a long period of time.
Something that is clearly more favorable for consumption and market popularity.” He says he is still aware of the isolated outbreaks in the interior, which despite being worrying, he believes they can be resolved.
“Therefore, we continue to anticipate the implementation of the new regulations as soon as possible, so that Macau’s economy can return to its glory.”
