An official of Macau’s tourism authority says the city attracted 1.17 million overseas visitors in the first half of this year.
Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) deputy director Ricky Hoi Io Meng disclosed the provisional data in comments to local broadcaster TDM over the weekend.
Mr Hoi added that Macau was on course to achieve the government’s goal of recording more than 2 million inbound overseas visitors this year.
According to official data, Macau received nearly 3.07 million overseas visitors in 2019, the year prior to the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The city’s authorities have a stated policy aim of encouraging its casino concessionaires to draw a greater proportion of their customers from markets beyond China.
As part of the Macau government’s tender process for new 10-year gaming concessions, bidders were asked to create plans and pledge investment on a number of issues, including bringing in more customers from overseas.
In recent months, MGTO – alongside casino operators – has held a series of roadshows in overseas markets, including Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.
Under the updated regulatory framework for Macau gaming, linked to the new 10-year concessions that started on January last year, the city’s chief executive has the authority to reduce by up to 5 percentage points casino operators’ tax burden on casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) generated by players from “foreign countries,” as a matter of “public interest”.
According to publicly available information, no casino operator as so far been granted a tax reduction on its GGR generated by overseas players.
