The Macau International Airport is saturated and only now are solutions being found, which essentially depend on the new land reclamations, which are yet to get the final green light by Mainland authorities.
MB November 2020 Special Report | Getting in and out
The high-speed train does not enter Macau because there seems to be no space to build a station.
If there is an area in which Macau depends on third parties (read, mainland China), it is in accessibility.
Look at what happens with the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge.
Therefore, the creation of the Guangdong Hong Kong Macau Great Bay Area (GBA) in 9 + 2 cities in Guangdong province seems to be the solution to many of Macau’s mobility problems – to top it off. This is the case as mobility plays a pivotal role in the GBA development plan.
There are forecasts (made long before the Covid-19 pandemic) that point to 40 million tourists in 2025, roughly the same as last year’s 39 million mark.
Though we are in unchartered waters due to the coronavirus crisis, if Macau is to bounce back to the pre-pandemic figures, it is also essential to reflect on how they are going to get in and out – this is what we do in this special report, much more because China’s master plan is to transform Macau into a World Centre of Tourism and Leisure.
New and better accesses are needed.
PS – Air Macau marks 25 years this month. We have not forgotten that. It was a challenging quarter of a century amid criticism, but the city’s flagship carrier has weathered the storms. A different question is whether these 25 years of monopoly as the sole operator of services to and from Macau have served Macau’s development and strategic objectives well. An increasing number of voices make the case for the need to break the monopoly.
