ماکائو: افزایش ورود گردشگران به سرزمین اصلی کاهش بازدیدکنندگان بین المللی را پوشش می دهد

More than 29 million tourists visited Macau last year, a 4-percent increase on 2012’s arrivals, Macau Government Tourist Office director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes said yesterday.

More than 29 million tourists visited Macau last year, a 4-percent increase on 2012’s arrivals, Macau Government Tourist Office director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes said yesterday.

Despite the growth in arrivals, the number of international tourists fell last year, Ms Senna Fernandes told the annual review of the sector.

Mainland tourists were again the main force driving tourism with their numbers rising by 10 percent in year-on-year terms to 18.6 million people last year.

Visitors from Hong Kong, 6.7 million, and from Taiwan, 1 million, are counted separately.

Ms Senna Fernandes said the tourist office was working to attract visitors from mainland provinces other than Guangdong, which is the city’s biggest source market.

“Forty-four percent of our mainland visitors came from Guangdong province [last year],” said Ms Senna Fernandes. “But about 70 percent of the Guangdong visitors are day-trippers. So we need to expand the visitor source beyond Guangdong.”

Even as the tourist office said it would work to increase arrival numbers, there are questions about the city’s ability to handle more tourists.

The issue was raised last week by Beijing’s new chief representative in Macau, Li Gang.

Mr Li said Beijing had no plan to expand the existing individual visa scheme that permits some mainlanders to travel to Macau independently.

He said politicians were aware of Macau’s capacity to handle tourists and Beijing did not want “a blind expansion” of mainland tourism to the city.

Last year alone, the number of visitors travelling under the individual visa scheme reached nearly 8 million, about 43 percent of the mainland visitors that came here, Ms Senna Fernandes said.

“We need a scientific analysis of what our tourism capacity is.”

“The Policy Research Office is doing a study about it, but we have no further news. We’ll take their analysis on the subject as our reference.”

Ms Senna Fernandes said the tourist office has four new walking routes planned that would help divert pedestrian traffic away from major destinations.

The routes include one that connects the Ruins of St Paul’s to Jardim de Luís de Camões, another in the peninsula’s north, and two in Taipa and Coloane.

خرد کردن اعداد

Ms Senna Fernandes said the reasons behind the dip in international visitors would be studied.

About 2.92 million international tourists visited last year, a 3 percent drop from one year earlier. South Korea was the bright spot, with the number of tourists to Macau increasing by 7 percent to about 470,000 people.

Ms Senna Fernandes said the drop in international tourist numbers was not related to the city losing its appeal.

“Last year we saw a decrease in our international visitor numbers, which I think can be explained by economic factors affecting people living in those places,” Ms Fernandes said.

“Since last year we launched a series of market research surveys, based upon which we’ll draw a plan to see what we can do in our target markets.”

“We’ll have an idea of why these visitors chose places other than Macau.”

Ms Senna Fernandes forecast “low single-digit” growth in tourist arrivals this year.

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