The director of the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO), Helena de Senna Fernandes, has stated that the promotional activities starting on Wednesday in Lisbon aim to return the city to international markets, a strategic objective of the government.
In an interview with Lusa, Senna Fernandes acknowledged that the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the city’s approach. The city was closed to the outside world, and now there is a need to catch up in terms of external promotion. “In terms of international markets, we are going to resume our work. We were really closed to the international market for some time, and we had to stop because it was a step to protect the population due to the pandemic.”
Macau followed Beijing’s guidelines and adopted a zero-tolerance policy against Covid-19, meaning that the city could only receive tourists from mainland China during the pandemic. “We have to start over what hasn’t been done in three years,” she said. But “the step forward will not be completely easy” because there is a lot of tourist competition, recognised the SAR’s tourism chief.
Before the pandemic, the weight of the international market was worth between 9% and 10% of tourism in Macau, a scenario that has changed drastically. She acknowledged that today “there are very few foreigners” in the city. “In March, there were only 2,000 international people entering per day,” explained the director, considering that this concern with foreign tourists is transversal to the entire government.
An example of this is some of the measures in the new gaming concession contracts for casino operators, who are now obliged to invest in markets and in international promotion, creating new products and new channels for attracting tourists. “From now on, I think you will see much more work with international markets. International tourism is different from domestic tourism, with more diversified consumption,” she said.
The Macau promotion action in Lisbon takes advantage of the Chief Executive’s presence in Portugal to try to garner more attention from Portuguese public opinion. “We are taking advantage of the visit of the Chief Executive to also have a greater focus on Macau.” On the other hand, “everybody seems to come to Portugal nowadays,” and an action in Lisbon is a “promotion to the world.”
In addition, Praça do Comércio (in the heart of downtown Lisbon) is “a multicultural space” with thousands of foreigners, and the Macau stands and the ‘videomapping’ at Terreiro do Paço will have a “very big impact on several markets,” in addition to Portuguese, considered Helena de Senna Fernandes. “We are not going to have large numbers of visitors from Portugal, but Portugal is important for now, to work in Europe and, on the other hand, I think that Portugal is also a gateway to the Portuguese-speaking markets,” seeking to promote Macau as a “centre of world tourism and leisure.”
The fact that Macau is a world heritage site and the city’s classification as a ‘UNESCO creative city of gastronomy’ are factors that end up attracting new markets in the region. “We are seeing many Asian tourists also wanting to taste Macau’s unique food,” she explained, adding that the SAR has new concert venues, water parks and more venues for events.
During the pandemic, most tourist offices in Macau were closed, but Senna Fernandes acknowledged that the situation has since changed. “Right now, we are considering what to do for each market. The world has changed a lot, maybe a presence is not so important [but] working directly with the consumer,” using new technologies.
Source: Macau Business