Director of Macau Government Tourist Office, João Manuel Costa Antunes unveiled today that close to 25 million visitor arrivals were recorded last year. Macau will strive to establish a quality tourism destination, enhancing tourism products and improving service quality, to be in line with the development strategy of building Macau into a global center of tourism and leisure. At the MGTO Annual Press Conference held today (Jan 19) at the Macau Tower Convention and Entertainment Center, Director Antunes reviewed last year's tourism development of Macau and outlined this year's tourism strategies and marketing promotional activities to nearly 400 attendants including MGTO representatives around the world, travel industry partners and a hundred international and local media. Speaking at the press conference, Antunes expressed that under the policy support of the Central Government, Macau SAR government is dedicating efforts in building Macau into a global center of tourism and leisure. The tourism industry of Macau enjoyed a steady growth last year, with provisional figures showing that visitor arrivals hit 24,965,000 in 2010, registering an increase of 15% compared with 2009. The Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan continue to be the top three visitor generating markets. Visitors from the Mainland and Hong Kong scored a surge of 20% and 11% respectively. New markets such as India, Russia and the Middle East also performed well last year, with a rise of 57%, 49% and 33% respectively over 2009. Antunes noted that visitors from Asia surged by 15%, while markets in the Americas, Europe, Africa and other regions also recorded growth. From January to November 2010, 48% of total arrivals stayed overnight, among which 65% or over 7 million stayed in hotels. Half of these hotel overnight guests chose 5-star hotels. The average length of stay stood at 1.54 nights. He continued that apart from Thailand which was affected by its domestic situation, the other top nine markets registered positive gains, among which, arrivals from Korea and the Mainland jumped by 62% and 20% respectively. Korea, India and the Mainland were the three markets with the highest growth in overnight guests while the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the United States were the top three markets in terms of length of stay. Total visitor expenditure in 2009 reached US$17.1 billion, a rise of 4.9%. From January to September 2010, total visitor expenditure hit US$18.2 billion, a significant growth of 52.2% over the same period of 2009. According to information of visitors surveyed in the third quarter of 2010, the Mainland cemented its position as the highest-spending market, followed by Southeast Asian countries and Japan. Currently, Macau has 62 hotels and 31 guesthouses, providing 20,988 rooms (guesthouses and 2 to 5-star deluxe hotels). The average occupancy rate of 3 to 5-star hotels in 2009 was 76.1%, while in 2010, the average occupancy rate of 3 to 5-star hotels was 84.5%, representing an increase of 8.4 percentage points over 2009. The average hotel room rate was US$138.9, an increase of 7.7%. Total number of occupied rooms from January to November 2010 was 5.17 million, a surge of 22%. Currently, there are 150 travel agencies and 1,477 tour guides in Macau, among which, Thai, Korean, English and Japanese speaking tour guides recorded the highest growth last year, increasing by 100%, 13.3%, 9.6% and 9.4% respectively. He pointed out that the Macau Business Tourism Center supported 266 events last year, 31% more than 2009, with total participants of 1.2 million, representing an increase of 130%. As for the Industry Partner Program, there are a total of 177 trade partners who have joined the program till the end of last year, 18% higher than 2009. Reviewing the implementation of the “Plan to Support Macau Tourism Industry”, "Support to Leisure Tourism" consisted of “Celebrate Macau Tours” and World Heritage "Historic Centre of Macau" Free Guiding Service. From May 18, 2009 to March 31, 2010, 66 travel agencies took part in “Celebrate Macau Tours” and 54,000 tour groups were organized, involving 1.33 million visitors and 58,000 tour guides. In the aviation aspect, MGTO focused on supporting local carriers, new routes development and providing promotional budget support to airlines operating to Macau. “Support to Sichuan’s Tourism” launched in 2008 organized special packages to Sichuan and assisted in promotion of Sichuan tourism. The plan also exempted the initial renewal fees for licenses and work permits of businesses or professionals related to the tourism industry, in addition to supporting the industry’s training initiatives. “Strategic MICE Market Stimulation Program” supported 163 events in 2010, involving over 630,000 participants. The program will be extended to June 30, 2011 with updated content. Antunes expressed that the announcement of the “Outline of the Plan for the Reform and Development of the Pearl River Delta” in 2008 consolidates Macau’s positioning as a global center of tourism and leisure. Macau is leveraging this strategic position and development direction to establish Macau as a quality tourism destination, enhancing tourism products and improving service quality, in keeping with the development strategy of building Macau into a global center of tourism and leisure. To achieve the goal of a quality tourism destination, MGTO will actively improve the management of the industry and administration, enhance the tourism environment and products, launch a new tourism promotional image and strengthen regional cooperation. He added that MGTO will continue to join forces with related government departments to optimize tourism and world heritage resources in developing a cultural tourism brand for visitors to experience the unique cultural ambiance of Macau. He pointed out that MGTO supports the development of budget hotels and will coordinate and communicate with related departments to study the re-use of small-scale buildings and land at the old districts. At the same time, MGTO will regularly review and improve the enforcement and effectiveness of the law on “Prohibition of Providing Illegal Accommodation”. Antunes noted that MGTO will review and intensify the “Quality and Honest Macau Tour” scheme, which will be expanded to other Mainland source markets beyond Shenzhen. MGTO also plans to discuss issues on "zero/negative-fare" tours with related Mainland departments. He added that MGTO plans to introduce more electronic services this year to be in line with the development of e-government. A total revamp for an interactive tourism website will also be launched to broaden the effectiveness of tourism promotion and build a friendlier online environment for visitors.
