Macau authorities are negotiating with officials in China to scrap the virus test requirement for visitors from the mainland who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
“We are discussing with the mainland government to reach mutual recognition of vaccines, at least with Guangdong province,” Macau Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng said in a recent address to the Legislative Assembly. “The nucleic acid test requirement can sometimes be an obstacle for tourists. We have to consider ways to alleviate restrictions.”
Daily visitor arrivals to and departures from Macau were between 34,200 to 47,500 per day from March 31 to April 6, up from 30,000 to 40,000 earlier this year but lower than in March, when the average was about 49,000 per day.
Some 983,887 visitors entered Macau between January and February, still a number 67 per cent lower than the same two months of last year.
As it stands, visitors from the mainland are still required to present a valid negative nucleic acid test. At the same time, tour group visas have yet to be reinstated and procedures to apply for individual tourist visas to visit Macau have yet to be simplified.
These policies, together with the removal of quarantine restrictions for Hong Kong visitors have been described as crucial elements to recover local visitation numbers and consequentially gaming revenues.
Macau officials also are focusing on promotional campaigns in the mainland, similar to initiatives carried out in Hangzhou, Beijing and in the southeast of the country.
Meanwhile, booking data released by Trip.com, the largest online travel agency in China, shows that tourist demand for Macau is on the rise.
As of April 8, the total number of bookings for the upcoming Labor Day holiday beginning May 1 is up by 20 percent compared to 2019, and the search volume for flights in and out of Macau have climbed by more than 140 percent.
“The continuing rise in popularity among mainland Chinese travelers for destinations such as Macau further evidences the vast amount of pent-up travel demand that exists,” the site said.
