One of the Hong Kong government’s top tourism advisers – the leisure and entertainment mogul Allan Zeman – says the city is lagging behind Macao when it comes to attractions.
His comments will come as a stark warning to a Hong Kong tourism industry struggling to find its post-pandemic direction, with long-haul markets remaining sluggish and the domestic market shifting from affluent mainland Chinese travellers to penny-pinching day-trippers.
In remarks published by the South China Morning Post over the weekend, Zeman said Macao has things “we don’t have” and praised the Macao government’s efforts to diversify away from gambling as a tourist draw.
“Macao is becoming an exciting city. Every week there’s new names coming, putting on shows, and it’s competition for us,” he said.
Zeman added: “The casinos earn a lot of money, so they can keep bringing out new things and reinventing themselves … Macao has suddenly become a very fun place to go to.” He said concessionaires were also “getting better and better” at staging entertainment.
[See more: Macao bags first place in a Chinese Tourism Academy satisfaction survey]
Zeman is the chairman of the board of Wynn Macau and one of Hong Kong’s most prominent business personalities, serving on the boards of TVB, Sino Land, the Star Ferry, and other companies. He formerly sat on the boards of Hong Kong’s Ocean Park and the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority.
His comments to the Post are one of the first public admissions by a high-profile Hong Kong figure of the threat posed by Macao and could portend a tourism shift in the Pearl River Delta in Macao’s favour.
While Hong Kong has traditionally been the more popular destination, Macao is catching up fast. The difference in the annual number of visitors shrank from 16.6 million in pre-pandemic 2019 to just 5.7 million in 2023. According to one projection, some 36 million people will visit Macao this year, exceeding Hong Kong’s 2023 total.
Macao’s neighbouring SAR has been struggling to regain its tourism momentum in the wake of the pandemic, with mainland Chinese visitors – its biggest market by far – put off by the city’s high costs and the often discriminatory attitudes shown to mainland Chinese by local residents.
Last week, Macao was voted as the destination that mainland Chinese travellers were most satisfied with during the first quarter of 2024, earning top spot in the annual Chinese Tourism Academy survey for the first time and beating Hong Kong, which fell into fifth place.
