The Government is to launch on 1 September a promotional campaign in order to attract a greater number of mainland visitors to Macao and to accelerate the recovery of the local economy.

The campaign will provide visitors from the mainland with promotional offers covering categories including flight tickets, accommodation, and spending at local shops. The aim is to encourage people to stay longer in Macao, and to stimulate their spending while in the city.

The application process has been resumed for residents of the mainland’s Guangdong Province to get visas to travel to Macao under the country’s facilitated individual travel scheme. The resumption is on the basis that Macao and Guangdong are able to maintain a stable epidemiological situation, with no new COVID-19 cases recorded locally. Visa applications across the rest of the country, under the facilitated individual travel scheme, are due to resume on 23 September.

The campaign is in cooperation with electronic-commerce services providers Tencent and Alibaba, as well as Air Macau. Promotions will be offered in phases.

In order for visitors from the mainland to be able to enjoy the promotional offers, they will need to reserve e-vouchers via the Macao Government Tourism Office’s WeChat social media account and the Fliggy travel service online platform. Promotional offers will only apply to payments within Macao, for relevant services or goods used by visitors.

In view of an anticipated increase in visitor volume following resumption of the facilitated individual travel scheme, members of the Macao public are advised to observe closely the city’s disease-control measures, in order to maintain Macao’s stable and safe environment in that regard.

The Government has met respectively with representatives of the Macao Chamber of Commerce, leisure enterprises, tourism and hotel associations, and local small and medium-sized enterprises, to exchange views regarding the promotional campaign.

During the COVID-19 alert, the Government had introduced in phases a number of measures aiming to relieve financial difficulties faced by various groups of people and businesses in the wake of the pandemic. These included: a consumption subsidy scheme for Macao ID holders; subsidies for domestic tourism trips undertaken by Macao ID holders; and a subsidy programme for local employees, self-employed professional individuals, and businesses.

The Government anticipated the local economy would continue to face headwinds. Macao’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell 67.8 percent year-on-year in real terms in the second quarter of 2020, a higher rate of decline than was seen in the first quarter this year.

Exports of services have accounted for at least 70 percent of local GDP in recent times. Consumption by tourists, and provision of services in general, are key components of Macao’s exports.

Macao’s exports of tourism services fell by 93.9 percent year-on-year in the second quarter.

Amid ongoing disease-prevention and -control measures in the region, the number of visitor arrivals to Macao had seen a decrease in recent months. The aggregate number of arrivals in the second quarter dropped by 99.5 percent year-on-year.