Macau persists in tourism promos for mainlanders: Lei

Sep 07, 2022 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  

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Macau remains committed to continuing tourism promotion work in mainland China, including discounts on flights and hotel stays, said on Wednesday Lei Wai Nong (pictured in file photo), Macau’s Secretary for Economy and Finance, though he accepted it might not result in an “immediate recovery” in tourist volumes.

Mr Lei added in his remarks to local media on the sidelines of a public event, a brief reference to the tourism outlook for the upcoming week-long holiday season encompassing National Day in early October. He said merely that Macau would keep its Covid-19 prevention measures in alignment with mainland China’s.

The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) has, since late August, led a promotional drive in mainland China, the only place currently to have a largely quarantine-free travel arrangement with Macau. One event scheduled for Qingdao, Shandong province – from Thursday (September 8) until September 12- has had to be postponed, due to a local Covid-19 alert.

Macau’s tourism bureau has an ongoing collaboration with big mainland-based online travel agencies, in order to distribute discount-voucher offers on flights to Macau and hotel stays.

In his Wednesday comments, Mr Lei said he was hopeful the mainland would soon authorise resumption of outbound mass-market package tours, if the Covid-19 situation were judged to be “under control”. He did not give detail on what the criteria might be for deciding that.

Macau’s recent daily inbound visitor volume had been in the range of “15,000 to 17,000”, Mr Lei noted to local media.

A Monday note from brokerage Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd, said that mainland consumer confidence in outbound travel to Macau might remain weak, if the spectre of short-notice travel tightening or even lockdown persisted in China as a whole, amid the country’s zero-Covid policy.

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