Visitation up 37 per cent during Labour Day Holiday

According to provisional statistics provided by the Public Security Police Force (PSP), Macao registered more than 630 thousand visitor arrivals (non-resident employees and students excluded) over the four-day Labour Day holiday spanning 1^st to 4^th May, 2019. Compared to last year’s three-day Labour Day break (29^th April to 1^st May, 2018) visitor arrivals during the first three days of this year’s holiday reached 530 thousand, posting a year-on-year rise of 37 per cent, some 430 thousand of whom came from Mainland China, an increase of 42.7 per cent.

Increased hotel occupancy and price

According to the latest figures provided by industry operators, hotel establishments saw an average occupancy rate of approximately 96.2 per cent during the Labour Day holiday, a year-on-year rise of 1.9 percentage points. The average room rate of hotels and guesthouses in Macao reached MOP1882.2, an increase of some16.7 per cent.

Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) conducted 38 inspections at major ports of entry and tourist attractions during the peak travel period of 1^st to 4^th May (including four joint inspections conducted with the PSP and Labour Affairs Bureau). MGTO also conducted 12 joint actions against illegal accommodation with PSP, sealing eight apartments allegedly operated as illegal accommodation.

Multiple channels predict visitor flow

MGTO is actively introducing various channels to encourage more visitors to capitalise on ‘smart application for visitor flow’, including sending mobile text messages to visitors; posting notices for visitors at Tourist Information counters in various ports of entry and Senado Square; through the assistance of MGTO representatives; mobile app ‘Step Out, Macao’; and MGTO’s WeChat ID ‘MGTOweixin’. Pertinent information about visitor flows to various attractions is also disseminated via the TDM Information Channel.

A total of 2665 users harnessed the ‘smart application for visitor flows’ from 1^st to 4^th May, including 980 local users (36.8 per cent) and 937 users from Mainland China (35.2 per cent). Users were primarily interested in the status of visitation to the Ruins of St. Paul’s, Senado Square, Taipa Village and Macau Tower, with the total viewing count reaching 6008.

Tourism environment optimised

With the city’s tourism carrying capacity during festivals and holidays deemed a high priority, MGTO is actively progressing a pilot scheme encompassing the vicinity of Senado Square and Ruins of St. Paul’s in order to collect statistics on visitor flow to tourist attractions via the Internet of Things.

MGTO and Hong Kong Tourism Board has signed a ‘Co-operative Agreement on a Research Project on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge’ to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the mega structure now in operation to gain insights into its transformative effects upon the composition of visitor source markets to Macao plus their mode of transport, awareness and opinions of the Bridge. The findings will serve as reference for the future tourism planning and destination promotion of Macao.