Tourist arrivals may not reach a satisfactory level during the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival, as mainland authorities have urged the public to stay home and reduce travel during the holiday, the chairman of the Association of Federation of the Industry and Commerce of Macau Tourism, Leng Sai Wai, told Macau News Agency (MNA).
Wu Liangyou, Deputy Director of the National Health Commission’s Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control, said at a press conference yesterday that the public should stay put during the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day Golden Week holidays and limit cross-city travel to avoid the risk of pandemic outbreaks caused by large-scale people movement.
From September 10 to October 31, mainland residents will be required to present a negative nucleic acid testing (NAT) result conducted within 48 hours when travelling by air, trains, and cross-province passenger vehicles or ships, and those who travel across provinces will be required to take a “voluntary nucleic acid test” upon arrival.
Also, individuals are required to hold a negative NAT result conducted within 72 hours to enter hotels or tourist attractions, and avoid holding “unnecessary large gathering activities” such as training, exhibitions, and cultural performances.
Leng indicated to MNA that the tourism industry in Macau will “definitely be affected”, since the pandemic outbreaks in some mainland provinces and the policy that calls on residents to stay home will have a negative impact on tourists’ intentions of visiting the SAR.
Due to the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic in various cities on the mainland, many local governments have also sent announcements requesting residents to stay put and reduce travel during the upcoming holidays.
“The situation in the mid-autumn festival will not be optimistic, because the government does not encourage people to go out, which means that people will not travel to other places, then how can we have tourists visiting the SAR?” the Leng said.
Meanwhile, he stressed that the possibility of the average daily visitor tally reaching some 20,000 during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday is low, due to the travel-reduction calls and the 24-hour COVID test requirement in customs entry policy.
The Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) hopes that visitor arrivals can return to a level of above 20,000 and 40,000 and even between 30,000 and 40,000 before the Chinese National Day holiday on October 1, its deputy director Cheng Wai Tong said.
“As long as the situation of COVID-19 development remains stable, visitors will gradually come back to Macau,” the deputy director told the local media.
The tourism association chairman expressed that the current customs entry policy which requires those who enter the mainland from Macau via land ports to present a negative nucleic acid test result conducted within 24 hours, will give tourists an impression that Macau is still a high-risk area and affect their confidence in visiting Macau.
“Mainland arrivals entering Macau are only asked to present a negative test result conducted within 48 hours, but they are required to hold a negative NAT result conducted within 24 hours when returning to the mainland. This ‘unequal condition’ will make the tourists believe that Macau still has a relatively higher pandemic transmission risk than the mainland, and will also make them feel that the pandemic situation in the SAR is still unstable,” Leng stated.
Regarding the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China to kick off on October 16, the chairman said that society and the tourism sector expected to see a relaxation in the pandemic prevention and control policy after the event, and if the NAT test requirement can be extended to seven days, “the tourist arrivals must double from the current level”.
“Macau has done a good job in all aspects and provided great discounts on hotels and air tickets. As long as the pandemic situation is stabilized and the policy is relaxed, the average daily tourism volume will be able to reach 40,000 to 50,000, or even 100,000,” the tourism sector representative indicated.
According to MGTO, Macau recorded an average daily visitor tally of 14,737 from August 20 to 26, an increase of 18 per cent compared with the daily average of 12,485 from August 13 to 19.
