Waiting!
There is a Portuguese proverb that says … “whoever hopes always reaches”!
It is what remains of us. Believe that the popular adage, made of custom, will materialize.
And how long the wait is! It started there at the end of January and has already entered the last quarter of the year. A 2020 that didn’t stop. And it is already the most remarkable year of the 21st century.
When the epidemic struck strongly, allied for January, even before it evolved into a pandemic, the majority in Macau believed that waiting for the return to normality, to the day-to-day flooding of the casinos, the engine of the local economy, and of the streets floods, it would not be brief, but it would never reach such a temporal extension.
In fact, around the beginning of the summer, it started to be said, with some discretion, that if everything went well, the entrance in autumn could be the starting point in an already urgent recovery of economic activity, in a territory that is only dependent on the game.
The October 1 holiday and the so-called “golden week” were thus seen as pretexts for the return of thousands of visitors and a new breath for the game, after all the territory’s source of life.
And how long the wait is! It started there at the end of January and has already entered the last quarter of the year. A 2020 that didn’t stop. And it is already the most remarkable year of the 21st century
However, from what is already known, the numbers of this recovery were well below the desired. It is also true that the authorities were always cautious when it came to talking about predictions. But it would be false to say that expectation (and even now the desire) did not go through a more accentuated growth in the number of tourists from the continent.
Now, given the evidence of the flop regarding the inflow of tourists to Macau during the “golden week” period, we are beginning to speak, again with discretion, as it is enough that, after all, the mirage of recovery will only happen there for the next Chinese New Year in February 2021.
More than a year later, it may be that the wait will reach the much desired momentum and return to normality. Until then, it is necessary to think about how to stabilize a poor economy and a “stopped” society for just over a year. This is not an easy task, starting with the elaboration of a new budget.
Let us wait… after all, patience is a Chinese predicate that matches perfectly with the saying “those who hope always achieve”.
*Executive Editor of Plataforma
