The government of Macau plans to allocate MOP3.19 billion (US$400 million) to create a program aimed at boosting the number of overnight visitors to the gambling hub.
Secretary for Economy and Finance Lei Wai Nong introduced the measure in the Legislative Assembly as part of a MOP13.6 billion increase in the 2020 budget. The increase includes a 10 billion package of stimulus spending to help heal the territory’s Covid 19-wracked economy through salary subsidies, small business assistance, support for bank loans and job training programs and other programs.
Macau has been trying for years with little success to induce visitors to stay longer than one day on average, and the new funding points to a redoubled effort on the government’s part to push the market beyond its longstanding reliance on gambling day-trippers and take its post-Covid recovery to a higher level.
“If a tourist leaves Macau on the same day they arrived, they end up spending 800 patacas,” Lei noted. “But if they stay for one night, they spend 2,600 patacas.
It appears the program also will direct a lot of its focus on mainland China tourists entering on individual travel visas, historically, a segment that tends to spend more per trip.
