Macau tour trade returns at historic areas, resorts says govt

Feb 06, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  

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On Monday (February 6) the first day of resumed tour-group business to Macau after a circa three-year suspension amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the city received six parties of visitors from the Chinese mainland, said that day the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO).

The aggregate of 135 travellers was drawn respectively from neighbouring Guangdong province, the city of Shanghai, and Liaoning province, the tourism body said.

They visited historical-heritage sites, and “integrated resorts”, said MGTO, the latter understood to be a reference to the city’s casino resorts.

Macau is due to receive a further nine package tour groups from mainland China up to and including Friday (February 10), making a total of 15 and an aggregate of 400 such travellers during the first five days of resumption. All the groups are having their stays subsidised by the city’s government, said MGTO deputy director Cheng Wai Tong in comments to local media on Monday.

In 2019 – the immediate trading year before the Covid-19 pandemic – Macau received a total of 8.33 million inbound tourists as part of tour groups, according to official data. Of that tally, 77.3 percent – or an aggregate of 6.49 million tourists – was from mainland China.

In total in 2019, Macau received more than 39.4 million tourists, a nearly 10-percent rise on the 35.8-million visitor arrivals recorded in 2018, according to official data.

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