The “Macao Ready Go! Local Tours” project was rolled out to offer local tours along 25 themed itineraries between 17 June and 30 September. Provisional figures show that close to 140,000 participants joined over 4,300 tours around Macao under the project. A questionnaire survey revealed that the overall satisfaction level of interviewees exceeded 85%, speaking to the project’s popularity among residents. The project inspired industry operators’ development of captivating tourism products and yielded economic benefits for the local market.
Wide participation for “teamLab SuperNature” and “Maritime Tour”
The 25 tour itineraries comprise 13 “Community-based Tours” and 12 “Leisure Tours”. Approximately 60% of participants opted for Leisure Tours whereas 40% opted for Community-based Tours. The “teamLab SuperNature” Tour attracted over 37,000 participants, the highest record among Leisure Tours. Over 15,000 participants signed up for the “Maritime Tour”, the most popular among Community-based Tours. Other top five tours include “Experience Macao by Land, Sea and Air” (about 19,000 participants), “Love the Country, Love Macao — Local Tours in Macao” (about 9,800 participants) and “A Trip to the Farm for Kids — A Leisure Trip to the Grand Coloane Resort” (about 8,500 participants).
Most enchanting Helicopter Ride Experience
Launched at the second stage, the “Helicopter Ride Experience” Local Tour became a great hit with over 30,000 applicants. Given its wide popularity, the organizer raised the quotas of tour participation twice with two rounds of electronic lots. Nearly 2,600 residents joined the tour to enjoy a panoramic view of the city from sky high.
A resident hit the highest record of joining nine tours
For number of participations, around 78,000 residents joined one local tour, comprising 72% of all participants while nearly 29,000 residents joined two of the tours, 26% of all. 580 Residents joined three local tours or above. One resident joined a total of nine different local tours, the highest record of all. For distribution of age groups, the biggest proportion, i.e. over 20%, of participants came from the age group of 55 – 64, followed by the age group of 14 or below.
Economic benefits for local market
The provisional data revealed that the “Macao Ready Go! Local Tours” project yielded over 56 million patacas in economic benefits for the local market. The subsidies granted for tour participation under the project amounted to 38 million patacas approximately while tour participants spent about 17 million patacas (including tour fee and extra expenditure). The 100-pataca Macau Pass E-Consumption Cards distributed during Community-based Tours led to an expenditure of around 4.98 million patacas in communities. Under strict implementation of pertinent regulations and measures on subsidies throughout the project, the SAR Government granted a subsidy of 280 patacas for each eligible Macao resident per tour joined. Each resident was entitled to two subsidies (for tour participation under per category) at most, equivalent to a maximum of 560 patacas.
A total of 151 travel agencies were commissioned to provide local tour services under the project, involving the participation of 445 tour guides and 508 drivers as well as the use of 501 tour buses, 6 open-top tour buses and one barrier-free tour bus for wheelchair users.
Positive feedback of interviewees
When the project was rolled out, MGTO collected around 15,000 questionnaires and conducted a statistical analysis of application and participation counts, economic benefits and results of the satisfaction survey among other variables. The provisional report revealed that over 85% interviewees were satisfied with the overall tour arrangements. Over 92% of interviewees were satisfied with the professional performance of tour bus drivers, while around 90% were satisfied with the professional performance of tour guides, and 85% agreed that the tours enhanced their understanding of Macao’s tourism elements.
On the other hand, the project undertaker received a relatively few number of 91 complaints from among the 140,000 tour participants. The issues mainly involved tour guide service quality, weather and other factors, followed by participants’ misunderstanding caused by some travel agencies’ unfamiliarity with the local tours.
To help the society cope with the economic impact brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Macao SAR Government launched a series of measures to tailor timely support for residents, employees, businesses and freelance workers. MGTO successively rolled out the “Macao Ready Go! Local Tours” project and the “Macao Ready Go!” online platform. By resuming tourism activities in Macao and promoting special offers of tourism and related businesses, the two initiatives aim to stimulate a rise of expenditure in different local communities and benefit small and medium-sized enterprises, in turn revitalizing the tourism and other related industries. The “Macao Ready Go! Local Tours” project was coordinated by MGTO, sponsored by the Macao Foundation, and undertaken by a Task Force formed by Macau Travel Agency Association, Association of Macao Tourist Agents and Travel Industry Council of Macau.
For future reference, MGTO will conduct an extensive and in-depth study on the economic benefits brought by the “Macao Ready Go! Local Tours” project for the tourism and other related sectors.
