International visitation is set to gain steam in the second quarter with the resumption and expansion of international routes. Tourism cooperation with nearby cities and promotional campaigns will play an important role in an increasingly competitive landscape, industry insiders say
As visitors from Macau’s two largest feeder markets, Mainland China and Hong Kong, have gradually been returning to the city in large numbers in recent weeks, the segment that the government and gaming operators aim to develop — international visitation—has yet to get off the ground.
Following the reversal of the strict zero-COVID policy in the mainland and Macau since last December, including dropping a mandatory quarantine and requirement of nucleic acid testing for arrivals to the city, international travellers can now enter the gambling enclave without hurdles. In the past Lunar New Year holiday in late January, a traditional festival celebrated in the Greater China region and some other Asian jurisdictions, Macau welcomed 451,047 travellers in the 21-27 January period — or about 64,435 visitors a day — nearly quadrupling from a year earlier but translating to just one-third of the pre-COVID volume, the official data said.
Among the tourists in the festive period this year, over 95 per cent, or 429,334 travellers, came from the mainland and Hong Kong, and less than 5 per cent, or 21,713 tourists, came from Taiwan and other international countries and regions. Nonetheless, this tally of international and Taiwan tourists within seven days already represented one-fourth of the volume in the entire year of 2022, when Macau only received about 80,957 international and Taiwan visitors, including 67,303 from the latter, amid stringent travel restrictions.
The chairman of the Travel Industry Council of Macau, Andy Wu Keng Kuong, acknowledges that not many international travellers have returned to the city despite the cancellation of travel restrictions due to the air traffic capacity. “Right now there are only a small number of flights connecting Macau to a few [international] destinations, resulting in a scarcity of overseas visitors,” he explains. “When the air transportation service between Macau and other destinations has fully been restored, which will gradually happen following the Lunar New Year, it will pave the way for the return of more overseas travellers.”
“After the end of the anti-epidemic period in Macau, the local aviation industry is actively restoring the air passenger service linking Macau [to other places],” the Civil Aviation Authority of Macau says
Restoring aviation routes
According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Macau and the city’s airport operator, Macau International Airport Co Ltd (CAM), the airport’s number of destinations increased from 19 in December to 29 in January, including 21 mainland Chinese cities, one in Taiwan, and seven in other Asian cities such as Tokyo in Japan, Seoul in South Korea, Bangkok in Thailand, and Singapore. Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, the Macau airport connected to over 51 destinations, including 31 mainland cities, three in Taiwan, and 17 in other Asian cities.
“After the end of the anti-epidemic period in Macau, the local aviation industry is actively restoring the air passenger service linking Macau [to other places],” the Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement. For instance, it has already approved low-cost carrier AirAsia to resume flights between Macau and Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia, in February.
“Given the overseas promotional campaigns rolled out by the government, as well as the incentives and discounts for air passengers offered by the local tourism and aviation industries, [there are] opportunities for development again,” the authority said.
For the city’s flagship carrier, Air Macau, the international routes to Tokyo, Hanoi of Vietnam, Bangkok, and Seoul have already resumed, and it plans to restore flights to Da Nang of Vietnam and Osaka of Japan in February. “In the future, Air Macau will launch a series of discounts in flight tickets for Macau residents and tourists so as to enhance their willingness to travel,” the carrier said in a statement. “[Air Macau] is committed to expediting the rapid recovery of the volume of visitors to Macau, and continuously injecting momentum into the revival of the Macau economy.”
In the wake of the restart of the aviation traffic, CAM also noted the Macau airport would strive to resume flights to the mainland and other Southeast Asian destinations, while it has also been in talks with airlines about new routes to Cambodia and Palau, a famous island destination in the western Pacific. Some airlines also plan to resume medium-to-long-haul routes beyond Southeast Asia with transits in Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore, which could help Macau attract more international travellers, the operator said.
“Right now there are only a small number of flights connecting Macau to a few [international] destinations, resulting in a scarcity of overseas visitors,” says Andy Wu of the Travel Industry Council of Macau
Gov’t and gaming ops
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tally of international travellers to Macau (visitors from regions excluding Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) averaged 3 million a year and accounted for less than 10 per cent of the total visitor arrivals. Amid Beijing’s clampdown on the cross-border gambling activities of mainlanders and its push to diversify the city’s economy from gambling, the Macau administration has placed greater emphasis in international visitation.
The SAR’s six gaming operators have been mandated by the government to explore overseas customer markets during their new 10-year concessions, which began in January 2023. The concessionaires have pledged to invest at least MOP118.8 billion (US$14.85 billion) in the next decade to do so with more non-gaming offerings, including strengthening their overseas sales and marketing networks to promote Macau, establishing partnerships with airlines for more international routes, and arranging private jets and chartered flights to fetch international visitors to the city.
Both the authorities and the operators have not divulged any specific targets concerning exploring international feeder markers, only acknowledging it would take time for the pie to grow bigger. The administration said it hoped that the volume of overseas visitors could at least double from the current tally by the end of the 10-year gaming concessions in 2032.
“In the future, Air Macau will launch a series of discounts in flight tickets for Macau residents and tourists so as to enhance their willingness to travel,” the carrier says
Geopolitics
According to Mr. Wu of the Travel Industry Council, some gaming operators have been in talks with the local tourism industry in recent times to discuss possible joint efforts in exploring international feeder markets. “Based on the current geopolitical climate, Macau should lay its eyes on the Southeast Asian market at the moment, like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, and others,” he says.
The three major economies in East Asia — China, Japan, and South Korea — have been embroiled in escalating tensions in recent weeks over travel arrangement. China stopped issuing short-term visas for visitors from Japan and South Korea in early January in a retaliatory move against its neighbours for requiring Chinese travellers only to present a negative nucleic acid test result upon arriving to the two nations. Besides Japan and South Korea, other countries like the United States and the United Kingdom also have similar requirements for Chinese travellers over concerns of China’s data transparency about COVID infections.
China has described the border measures of Japan and South Korea as “discriminatory.” But the world’s second largest economy resumed issuing visas for visitors from Japan in late January, a sign of the diplomatic row being eased.
Preceeding the coronavirus outbreak in early 2020, the top five international feeder markets for Macau were South Korea, the Philippines, Japan, Malaysia and the United States, official data showed.
“… [Hong Kong and Macau] can further strengthen cooperation to facilitate more international tourists to visit Macau from Hong Kong for experiences of the gastronomy, leisure offerings, heritage and mega events of Macau,” says legislator Kenny Cheung
Multiple destinations
Kenny Cheung Kin Chung, a Macau legislator from the tourism industry, believes the authorities and industry stakeholders could roll out more incentives and special offers for flight tickets, accommodation, and other types of spending to entice international travellers, alongside effective marketing strategies overseas. The lawmaker also underscores the importance of cooperation between Macau and nearby Hong Kong.
“The collaboration of the tourism industries in both Macau and Hong Kong has lasted for several decades, including a joint itinerary of multiple stops for tourists,” he illustrates. “In this regard, both sides can further strengthen cooperation to facilitate more international tourists to visit Macau from Hong Kong for experiences of the gastronomy, leisure offerings, heritage and mega events of Macau.”
In light of the dropping of all travel restrictions for arrivals to Macau since the end of last year, the Macau government has promptly held various activities to consolidate exchanges and communications among the tourism operators in the two SARs, including a visit by a delegation of Hong Kong tourism representatives in January.
During a tourism seminar held in Macau, Perry Yiu, a Hong Kong legislator from the tourism constituency, also advanced similar ideas of consolidating cooperation between the two sides. Hong Kong is not the final stopover for many international travellers, who will also visit other places before going back to their home country, and the two SARs can work hand in hand in the future to facilitate these tourists’ coming to Macau, he illustrated.
Apart from Hong Kong, Wong Fai, president of the Macau Leisure Tourism Services Innovation Association, also indicates the city has to collaborate with other nearby cities and places in Mainland China like Hengqin to target overseas visitation, for instance, by offering visa-free entry for foreign travellers to visit Hengqin from Macau.
Statistics about Overseas Visitors to Macau
| Year | No. of overseas visitors | Percentage of Total Visitation Figure |
| 2013 | 2.93 million | 9.98% |
| 2014 | 2.89 million | 9.18% |
| 2015 | 2.78 million | 9.06% |
| 2016 | 3 million | 9.69% |
| 2017 | 3.19 million | 9.78% |
| 2018 | 3.15 million | 8.81% |
| 2019 | 3.07 million | 7.78% |
| 2020 | 195,320 | 3.31% |
| 2021 | 921 | 0.01% |
| 2022 | 13,654 | 0.24% |
Sources: Statistics and Census Service of Macau
2Q and forward
“The local tourism industry has plans to strengthen promotion [about Macau] in some Southeast Asian countries after the Lunar New Year, as there are more public holidays for these nations in March and April,” Mr. Wong says. “This can also help the city to attract different types of visitors in the quiet season [before May].”
Mr. Wu of the Travel Industry Council also expects the volume of overseas travellers to Macau will start to grow in the second quarter of this year and onwards, as the air passenger service has gradually been restored with more effective marketing initiatives launched by the government, gaming operators, and industry stakeholders.
“Different tasks will continuously be undertaken, from targeting mainland Chinese travellers and Hong Kongers to international visitors, to revive the city’s tourism,” he adds.
