Dec 10, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  
Macau will see in 2020 the first year-on-year decline since 2015 in the city’s annual visitor arrival tally, with the full-year figure expected to be below 6 million, said on Wednesday Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, director of Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO). Around half of that tally was recorded in January, with just above 2.8 million visitor arrivals in the opening month this year.
“I don’t think we will reach 6 million [visitor arrivals] this year,” Ms Senna Fernandes (pictured) told reporters on the sidelines of the Global Tourism Economy Forum. The MGTO director said 2020 had been a “very difficult year” for the tourism trade because of restrictions to stem the Covid-19 pandemic.
Macau received more than 39.4 million tourists in 2019, a nearly 10-percent rise on the 35.8-million visitor arrivals recorded in 2018, according to official data.
The last time annual visitor figures in Macau went down was in 2015. Arrivals for that year stood at 30.7 million, a year-on-year decrease of 2.6 percent.
Ms Senna Fernandes said MGTO was not expecting a peak in the number of visitor arrivals this month, as the December holiday period is not a “high travelling period” in mainland China.
“Right now, the only market that we can work on is mainland China, and the Christmas [holiday] is not a period of high travel in mainland China,” said the tourism boss. “We don’t anticipate a very high number of bookings,” she added.
The local tourism authority is currently planning more promotional activities in the mainland for next year. “We are at this point in time planning some ‘offline’ activities in major cities in the mainland in January, similar to what we’ve done in Beijing,” said Ms Senna Fernandes, referring to a marketing campaign called “Beijing Macao Week” that took place in late September.
Jun 02, 2023
Jun 01, 2023
Jun 02, 2023
Jun 02, 2023
Jun 02, 2023
Genting Singapore Ltd says Lam Yi Young has resigned from his role as deputy chief executive of Resorts World at Sentosa Pte Ltd. The latter firm is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Genting...Jun 01, 2023
Alfastreet, a manufacturer of electronic gaming machines,...Jun 01, 2023
Casino equipment maker Sega Sammy Creation Inc is tweaking...Jun 01, 2023
The iGaming segment in Asia “has grown rapidly” since...May 31, 2023
Showing slot machine players – via animations on the...May 31, 2023
Macau stocks in likelihood “have been punished too much...May 31, 2023
There are foreign companies still interested in investing...May 31, 2023
Thailand could pass the necessary enabling legislation for...May 30, 2023
China will remain a key market for Asian gaming...May 30, 2023
Alejandro Tengco (pictured in a file photo), chairman and...May 30, 2023
There are “plenty of reasons” for the global gaming...May 30, 2023
Gaming equipment provider International Game Technology Plc...May 30, 2023
The Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia 2023 Special Edition:...May 29, 2023
Austria-based gaming equipment maker and operator Novomatic...May 25, 2023
Sports betting and online casino operating platform...May 24, 2023
The business performance in Asia of gaming content and...May 18, 2023
The organisers of Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia 2023...May 17, 2023
Gaming content and equipment supplier Light & Wonder...May 16, 2023
Casino equipment maker Sega Sammy Creation Inc is to...May 09, 2023
Casino slot machine and digital gaming content provider...May 05, 2023
The Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia event in Singapore is the...May 04, 2023
An adviser to a Thailand parliamentary committee mulling...(Click here for more)
US$8.1 billion
Macau’s casino gross gaming revenue in the five months to May 31