Macau travel agencies
have registered over 100 package tours with tourism authorities for subsidies
under a scheme designed to provide incentives for local tourist guides to lure mainland
Chinese tourists to the city post-Covid.
The Macau Government
Tourism Office unveiled the ‘My Treat for You, Joyful Macao Tour’ Subsidy
Scheme late last year in the run-up to the return of mainland Chinese tourists
on package tours – a prospect that materialised on 6 February.
Under the programme, a tourist
from neighbouring Guangdong province can generate a subsidy of MOP150
(US$18.32) for each night he or she spends in the city, up to a maximum of
MOP300, or two nights at most.
It goes up to MOP250
and MOP400 respectively for a tourist who comes from outside Guangdong.
The Office today said that it was looking into 113 group tours put forth by local travel agencies, involving 3,069 tourists.
Each applicant will be assessed based on a number of criteria such as experience in hosting package tours between 2018 and 2019, marketing strategies, and route arrangements. Moreover, each tour has to be made up of at least 10 to qualify for a grant.
The subsidy scheme will
soon expand to cover foreign tourists, including those Hong Kong and Taiwan
with each night equal to MOP350 to a maximum of two nights that are worth
MOP500.
The tourism authorities
are planning a series of roadshows for Greater Bay Area cities including
Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
The Office is not the
only government body striving to bring in tourists, the city’s trade promoter –
Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) – said that it would have
drawn over 6,000 tourists to the city for business purposes by the end of
February.
Many conference organisers
have chosen to arrange a Macau schedule of