In December 2024, Macau will launch a campaign to attract more foreign visitors by subsidizing packages including plane tickets, hotel stays and performance tickets to mark the Chinese region’s 25th anniversary.
The campaign will also include the promotion of cross-border transport, dining and entertainment, the head of government emphasized on Tuesday, while presenting the 2024 Guidelines for Action (LAG) to Members of the Legislative Assembly (LA).
“Expanding sources of foreign visitors” is the goal of the initiative, Ho Iat Seng stressed, “to celebrate” the 25th anniversary of the transition of Macau administration from Portugal to China, which will be celebrated on December 20, 2024.
In the first nine months of the year, 98.9% of all tourist arrivals in Macau originated from mainland China and Hong Kong, according to official data.
In February, Hong Kong announced it would offer half a million plane tickets to attract tourists and businessmen from around the world after the region lifted entry restrictions due to the pandemic.
But Ho Iat Seng later assured a press conference that Macau would not offer plane tickets. “We will arrange tour packages with travel agencies,” he explained.
“We have to open up the international market,” the CEO said, pointing to Southeast Asia and the “European market.” [que] This is also very important.”
Macau International Airport, which has connections only to mainland China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia, will open “more direct international flights” and work to expand landfills and infrastructure will begin in the second half of 2024, the chief executive said.
The airport, which currently has one runway, has the capacity to accommodate up to 9.6 million passengers, but the utilization rate is “only 60%,” Ho lamented.
“I hope that Air Macau will be able to acquire larger aircraft to operate long-haul flights,” the CEO stressed, referring to the territory’s flagship airline.
In June, tourism director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandez called the launch of direct flights between Macau and Portugal a “dream” but also recalled that it was possible to work with neighboring airports in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Portugal. Shenzhen.
Today Ho Iat Seng promised that authorities would use the bridge, which connects the city to Hong Kong in about half an hour by car, to “facilitate the travel of foreign visitors to Macau.”
Last week, the AL as a whole approved the 2024 budget, which envisages a surplus of 1.17 billion patacas (135.6 million euros) after three years of economic crisis, “with no need to resort to financial reserves.”
The 2024 budget calls for a 1.4% increase in overall spending to MOP 105.9 billion (€12.2 billion), a figure that includes a 3.3% increase in civil servant salaries.
Ho Iat Sen stressed today that the authorities will spend 28.7 billion patacas (3.34 billion euros) on “measures to improve the welfare of the population.”
The government forecasts revenue growth of 1.8% to 107.1 billion patacas (€12.4 billion), mainly thanks to the gambling tax, which is expected to rise by 48.7%.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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