Experience Macau Unlimited– Macao Promotion in Lisbon（Stock image）
Since Macao lifted its travel restrictions at the beginning of this year, the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) immediately launched promotion works in various tourist source markets, profusely carrying out promotions both online and offline, combining public and private forces and fascinating events every month, influencing a steady increase on the number of visitors; during summer season, the number of inbound visitors in Macao has further increased and the number of visitors has improved significantly.
In terms of visitor arrivals to Macao, the Statistics and Census Service recently announced that a total of 14.40 million inbound visitors were recorded from January to July this year. The situation of tourists visiting Macao in July was satisfactory. The average daily number of inbound tourists recovered to 78.2% of the same period in 2019 before the pandemic. Among them, the average daily number of Mainland tourists in July recovered to 74.3% of the same period in 2019. During the peak summer season, the number of tourists visiting Macao has further increased. According to provisional data, a total of 139 thousand people arrived on August 12, the highest single-day visitor arrivals this year and the highest in three and a half years.
Situation of hotel occupancy is excellent in recent months
In terms of occupancy statistics for the hotel industry, the average daily number of tourists staying in hotel establishments in June this year exceeded 36,000, with the average daily recovery in June reaching 102.2% compared to the same period in 2019. In addition, the occupancy rate of hotel establishments reached 92.2% in July, the highest since the outbreak.
Steady increase of international tourists
Overseas markets are recovering well. The average daily number of international tourists in January this year only reached 10.1% of the recovery rate compared to January 2019; the average daily number of international tourists reached 4,186 in July this year, compared with the average daily number of 7,393 in July 2019, the recovery rate has reached 56.6%. According to the latest provisional data, between 1 to 17 August the average daily number of international visitors further increased by 5% compared to July, reflecting that Macao’s tourist structure is gradually developing towards a diversified direction and has rich "tourism +" elements to attract different groups of tourists.
Among Macao’s top ten tourist source markets from January to July this year, international tourist sources mainly come from Southeast Asian markets, including the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore; the Korean market in Northeast Asia, and the long-distance tourist source market the United States.
Direct flight discounts attract tourists to visit Macao
Aiming at promotions of Macao and direct flight source markets, MGTO and airlines with relevant direct flights have launched discounted air tickets for tourists visiting Macao: Between April and December, Air Macau launched a buy one get one free for a limited time when booking round trips from Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Thailand or Vietnam; In May, Jin Air launched a round-trip promotion from Seoul to Macau, where 2 people or more may enjoy a half-price ticket discount; from July to September, MGTO cooperates with Taiwan Tiger Airways; From August to December, MGTO cooperates with Malaysia AirAsia to launch a preferential package to attract local tourists to Macau, and plans to expand to the AirAsia route between the Philippines and Macau; simultaneously, MGTO plans to closely discuss with other airlines in South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan to launch preferential packages to Macau. In addition, in order to cooperate with the future transportation arrangements for the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in the restricted area of Hong Kong International Airport, it is planned to launch a Hong Kong-Macao one-way multi-stop package with Hong Kong Cathay Pacific Airways.
Participation in exhibitions, organization of familiarization visits to expand industry exchanges
In terms of overseas market promotions, MGTO has been promoting externally continuously, in conjunction with cross-departmental departments and the six integrated resort and leisure companies in Macao, it first held the "Experience Macao Unlimited – Macao Promotion in Lisbon" in Portugal in April. In May and July, the large-scale roadshow activities of "Experience Macao Unlimited" were held in Thailand and South Korea respectively, and the theme of the roadshow was set according to different markets and matched with targeted publicity strategies. From July to August, MGTO and Air Macau jointly organized local visits for tourism industries in Tokyo and Osaka to visit Macao and exchange business with the Macao industry. MGTO also participated in the NATAS Holidays Fair in Singapore and Malaysia International Travel Mart with industry representatives respectively, showcasing the rich elements of "tourism +" in Macao, expanding its source of international tourists.
So far, MGTO has successively invited hundreds of industry, media and tourism experts from Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, Japan and Portugal to visit Macao, and have held tourism promotion and exchange meetings for some of them, to actively promote tourism cooperation in different countries and regions.
Further enhance international tourism image
The 11th Macao International Travel (Industry) Expo, which was held earlier, not only welcomed tourism and related industries from home and abroad to participate in Macao, but also invited a total of 23 UNESCO Creative Cities of Gastronomy representatives and chefs, which also included Macao.
This year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Tourism Working Group meetings were held in the Philippines and the United States in April and August. MGTO and the Economic and Technological Development Bureau represented Macao, China, as guest economy, introduced Macao's "tourism +" and the development strategy to deepen smart tourism, increasing the exposure of Macao as a tourist destination on an international level, and enhance Macao's international tourism image.
Promote Macao's "Tourism+" through multiple channels
The official social media of MGTO and its overseas representative offices continue to actively promote and distribute the latest information on Macao tourism to international media. At the same time, under the coordination of the overseas market representative offices of MGTO, a series of Macao tourism specials were filmed and broadcast on television stations or YouTube channels in relevant regions. In addition, after research, Xiaohongshu was found to have many users in Southeast Asia such as Malaysia and Singapore, therefore there are plans to use this platform to promote Macao’s festivals in the third to fourth quarters and targeting the Chinese public in Southeast Asia.
In response to the gradual increase in tourists from various countries, MGTO continues to implement the "Macao Courtesy Campaign" to further improve the quality of tourism services in Macao, encourage residents and the industry to treat guests with politeness, promote the image of Macao as a well-mannered city, and consolidate its status as a world centre of tourism and leisure.
