Economists at the University of Macau say improvements in the territory’s economy will ‘be more obvious’ this year, but hurdles remain.
Business
Despite a crippling labour shortage, the migrant worker population has grown by less than 10,000 since Macao’s emergence from the pandemic in January.
The event, now in its eleventh year, welcomed a record 30,000 attendees and saw the transaction of some 2.5 million patacas worth of business.
The month of June is traditionally a flat one for the territory, with Macao’s gaming concessionaires affected by a seasonal slowdown.
They make up a tiny fraction of the overall total, many are here for less than a day, and hardly any come from Portuguese-speaking countries.
However, the steep drop in earnings come as Transmac and TCM make major investments in electric buses, which make up a growing portion of the city’s fleet.
There were no significant increases in the total number of guests, average lengths of stay or the proportion of guests from long-haul destinations.
UM Professor Glenn McCartney says if Macao wants to diversify its tourism offerings, it needs to import more talent.
The strong performance over the four-day period will help to make up for a disappointing May, when tourist volumes fell.