The three-day Dragon Boat holiday (Duanwu Jie) attracted 510,100 visitors to the city, including 154,100 overnighters, and generated 372 million yuan ($53 million) in tourism revenue, according to the Zhuhai local media’s report. Meanwhile last year same period attracted 804,300 visitors and generated 673 million.
Undoubtedly the pandemic has profoundly affected the tourism market and the industry. But we have also seen that after months of near-quiet silence, the mainland’s tourism industry has finally started to heat up.
From the golden week of the May 1st, till the Dragon Boat Festival holiday a week ago, it can be observed that the return of tourism has taken on many new characteristics.
One of them is that more tourists tend to choose to higher quality tourism products, including high-star hotels, more boutique travel routes., etc. One of the reasons of it is due to the impact of the epidemic, avoiding crowds has become a travel concern for many people. One of another reason is that due to the restrictions on overseas travel, a considerable number of tourists have turned to the domestic travel with higher quality.
Macau, as the hub of luxury hotels, can undoubtedly provide more choices for those tourists. Perhaps as a result, Air Macau’s special no-deadline package between the Mainland and Macau are sold out.
The COVID-19 has indeed brought a fatal blow to the lifeline of Macau’s economy, but new opportunities are often hidden in the crisis.
*Journalist
