The government has no plans to extend Macao return tickets, a long-running promotion that gives free return tickets to any visitor arriving from Hong Kong by bus or ferry and spending at least a night in the territory. That’s according to Ricky Hoi, the deputy head of the Macao Government Tourism Office.
The official told TDM last week that the popular promotion was originally intended to attract Hong Kong visitors in the wake of Macao’s reopening and had fulfilled its objectives. He said the volume of visitors arriving in Macao from Hong Kong was now 80 percent of its pre-pandemic level.
Launched on 13 January, just days after Macao removed the last of its Covid-19 pandemic travel restrictions, the ticket bonanza was a huge hit in Hong Kong – Macao’s second biggest source of visitors after mainland China. It helped to lure more than 523,000 visitors across the estuary in February.
[See more: Here’s how to get the bus from Hong Kong to Macao]
In March, officials announced that they were extending the promotion until the end of June. They also broadened the scheme, originally for Hong Kong Identity Card holders only, to include any traveller arriving in Macao from Hong Kong by ferry or bus.
News that the scheme won’t be getting a further extension comes as industry figures tip the city’s hotel room prices to rise by as much as 30 percent over the summer owing to tight room supply.
Lou Chi Leong of the Macau Hoteliers & Innkeepers Association told local media that he also expected hotel occupancy rates to reach 90 percent and the labour shortage to ease.
