Macau’s second biggest tourism market and usually its main source of visitors during the period
The Macau Travel Industry Council has predicted that the city will welcome more than 300,000 tourists during the three-day Easter holiday starting on March 29.
According to a press statement, the Council’s President Andy Wu Kong Kuong says he believes a daily average of more than 100,000 visitors is anticipated. For comparison, last Easter’s daily average was just under 84,000.
Easter is a public holiday in Hong Kong, Macau’s second biggest tourism market and usually its main source of visitors during the period. The ministry says it aims to increase this number to 100,000.
The statement adds that the Ching Ming festival is a time for Chinese people worldwide to pay respect to their ancestors. This year, the festival will be observed from April 4 to April 6 in mainland China, whereas in Hong Kong, it will only be celebrated on April 4. The Easter season in Hong Kong, which also follows the lunar calendar, will run from March 29 (Good Friday) to April 1 (Easter Monday) this year.
The board says that it expects visitor traffic to be lower during these festivals than during the Chinese New Year holiday. During the Chinese New Year break from February 10 to February 17 this year, Macau received almost 1.36 million visitors, averaging close to 170,000 a day.
Dragon Trail International, a marketing and research agency focusing on mainland consumers, says in a recent travel-sector review that outbound trips by that segment might only surpass pre-pandemic levels of 2019 by 2025. This year, the volume of such trips might reach around 80 pc of the 2019 levels.
According to figures from China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, during this year’s Chinese New Year, 3.60 million outbound trips were made by mainlanders, which is 57 pc of 2019’s 6.31 million outbound trips.
Dragon Trail International also pointed out that the mainland’s five-day holiday surrounding Labour Day on May 1 would be an important time for Macau’s tourism. This would be followed by the summer season and the Autumn Golden Week, which encompasses China’s National Day on October 1.
