Large numbers of Hong Kong visitors travelled to Macao during Wednesday’s Ching Ming festival, with the territory recording 34,000 arrivals from its sister SAR – or nearly 46 percent of the total 74,000 arrivals.
Hong Kong is Macao’s second biggest tourism market after mainland China. Currently, many Hong Kong visitors are drawn by a promotion that sees free return bus or ferry tickets given to those spending at least one night in Macao.
Wednesday’s performance prompted Helena de Senna Fernandes, head of the Macao Government Tourism Office, to express confidence that total arrivals this year could reach 20 million, or just over half the visitor total recorded during 2019 — the last year before Covid-19 struck.
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She told the media that authorities were “satisfied” with the speed at which Macao’s tourism industry was recovering from the pandemic. The territory saw 1,593,743 visitors in February – a 143.1 percent year-on-year increase and a jump of 14.0 percent month-on-month.
However, the speed at which visitors are returning to Macao is causing problems for the hotel sector, which is suffering from a labour shortage.
Bloomberg reported on Thursday that a lack of staff was forcing Macao’s hotels to operate on partial capacity, mothballing rooms and cutting back on some guest services.
The pandemic saw an exodus from Macao of tens of thousands of non-resident workers, who have yet to be replaced. Less than 700 were hired in February, a month after pandemic restrictions were lifted.
