Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) President Fanny Vong Chuk Kwan said Thursday that Macau’s tourism carrying capacity was coming to a head, urging the government to come up with ways to divert tourists to different areas of the city during peak holiday periods.
Vong made the remarks to reporters on the sidelines of the IFT opening ceremony of the academic year 2015/2016 at Macau Tower.
Talking to reporters, Vong said that the institute conducts an annual survey aimed at understanding the latest situation of the city’s tourism carrying capacity, as well as looking into which sectors are under pressure regarding their tourism carrying capacity.
According to its website, the IFT Tourism Research Centre (ITRC) has conducted studies on Macau’s tourism carrying capacity (TCC studies) annually since 2003. The TCC studies assessed how well tourism service providers cope with the city’s tourism demand in terms of hard and soft infrastructure.
“As we can see, the number of tourists increases dramatically at peak seasons, such as on special occasions and holidays,” said Vong, adding, “Tourists are packed specifically in areas where the popular attractions are located…we consider these [situations] a bottleneck [in the city’s tourism carrying capacity].”
“The government could study how to attract tourists to come in off-peak seasons. The government may also consider focusing on promoting less popular attractions,” said Vong.
According to IFT data, just 416 out of 2,160 applicants were accepted for the new academic year, excluding exchange students.(macaunews/macaupost)
