In review of the Macao tourism industry in 2015, due to a number of external factors such as instability of international economic environment, stock market plunge, exchange rate movements, particularly the exchange rate adjustment in neighboring regions, Macao's tourism industry had to face greater competition. The number of visitor arrivals was slightly down by 2.6% compared with 2014 to a total of 30,714,628, which was in line with the forecast of over 30 million by Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) earlier. As the largest source market of Macao, visitors from Mainland China totaled 20.41 million, down by 4% compared with 2014, occupying 66.5% of the total visitor arrivals in 2015. In term of international market, many source markets began to stabilize in the second half of the year, especially the short-haul source markets. Asian markets beyond Mainland China recorded a growth of 0.6%. Among markets with registered growth include Vietnam (+ 13.3%), the Philippines (+ 5.3%), Taiwan (+ 3.6%), Thailand (+ 2.8%), Hong Kong (+ 1.7%) and India (+ 0.2%). The long-haul markets showed varied performance, with France (+ 2.4%), New Zealand (+ 2.0%), the US (+ 0.6%) and Canada (+ 0.5%) recording an increase, while the rest of the long-haul source markets showed declines to different degrees. Despite a slight decrease in total visitor arrivals in 2015, MGTO has actively made flexible adjustments starting from the 4th quarter of last year to coordinate related activities for tourism promotion. By unleashing the synergistic effect produced by different types of activities and mega events, MGTO aims to attract quality tourists from different source markets and further extend visitors’ length of stay. The tourism industry has achieved significantly better performance in the 4th quarter, with the scale of decrease in tourist arrivals narrowing down from 3.6% of the 1st quarter to 1.7%. In addition, the number of international tourist arrivals in the 4th quarter has experienced a more remarkable growth as well, marking a period-on-period increase of 3.9%. In particular, a combination of multiple mega events including Macau International Marathon, Parade through Macao, Latin City and Macao Light Festival in December 2015 had driven positive growths in a range of tourism figures such as total visitor arrivals, numbers of Greater China and international visitors, all of which registered an increase compared with the corresponding period of 2014. The average length of stay for overnight-stay visitors also increased when compared to the same period in 2014, with the ratio of overnight-stay visitors surpassing that of same-day visitors again since December 2012. With the five-year development plan proposed by the Committee for the Development of the World Centre of Tourism and Leisure, MGTO will work in line with Macao SAR Government’s administrative goal as it strives to foster moderate diversification and steady, sustainable development of tourism industry. Instead of pursuing after rapid growth in visitor arrivals, the Office will strive for a positive transformation in visitors’ style of travel, leading to a rise in the quality of visitations. In addition, MGTO seeks to carry out more effective promotional activities, forge deeper cooperation with members of travel trade and unfold new promotional projects together with different strategic partners. More than that, a variety of tourism packages will be launched to go hand in hand with different events and festivals. With such measures, the Office hopes to enhance the synergistic effect between tourism, cultural and sports events, while dedicated to fostering improvement of local tourism service quality such that Macao tourism industry will march toward healthy development. It is estimated that the number of visitor arrivals in 2016 will remain at a stable level. Regardless, it depends on the overall prospect of global economy. MGTO will closely monitor the latest economic trend and adjust its products and marketing strategies based on actual demand.
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