A drop in the number of visitors from Hong Kong is largely because of a lack of new attractions, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, the director of Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO).
“Pure and simple, the [Hong Kong] visitors only come to Macau when there’s something new, like a new hotel or resort. Hong Kong visitors have a love of novelty,” Fernandes told a meeting hosted by the France Macau Business Association and the American Chamber of Commerce Wednesday.
“In the next few years we won’t have a lot of new elements in the city.So we’ll do some events in Macau and package them in certain ways that make them [Hong Kong visitors] feel that if they don’t come, they’ll miss out on something” Senna Fernandes said.
The government’s data shows a fall in tourists from the East Asian markets of Japan and Taiwan, despite a continued rise in overall tourist numbers.
“For Taiwan, the situation is more mixed. We’re losing a lot in terms of total [visitor] traffic due to the direct cross-straits flights” she said.
“But at the same time. we also see more Taiwan visitors are staying overnight in local hotels.We are actually seeing a change in Taiwan where its transit visitors are turning in to real visitors” she add.
In the first quarter of this year more than 96,750 Taiwanese tourists stayed overnight, a 44.7 percent increase over the same period of 2012.
Senna Fernandes said Macau is also doing efforts to develop cultural tourism and will try to attract visitors from coastal cities in the mainland China, the city´s biggest source of tourists.
“Shopping will still be the major non-gaming appeal for these mainland visitors (…) but we will also try to attract them with Macau´s cultural elements”, she noted.(macaunews)
