Tourists swarm gambling hub Macau over Lunar New Year after COVID curbs dropped

Sands China

25/01/2023 03:54

By Lam Yik
MACAU, Jan 25 (Reuters) - The world's biggest gambling hub Macau
has seen tens of thousands of tourists stream daily into its
casinos and picturesque cobbled streets over the Lunar New Year
holiday, a stark contrast to the dearth of visitors since 2020.
    Macau has seen a resurgence of tourists from mainland China
since Jan. 8 after the special Chinese administrative region
dropped all COVID-19 testing requirements for inbound travellers
from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
    Macau welcomed more than 71,000 visitors on Monday, the
highest single day record since the pandemic, its government
said in a statement late on Tuesday.
    "I come here to gamble, it’s good to see people in Macau. It
was lifeless during lockdown and not very good," said a man
surnamed Lam, who travelled to Macau from Jiangmen in nearby
Guangdong province in southern China.
    More than 94% of visitors to Macau over the first three days
of the Lunar New Year, Jan. 21-23, came from mainland China and
neighbouring special administrative region Hong Kong. Average
daily visitor arrivals reached more than 51,000, a year-on-year
surge of 217%, the government said. 
    The influx of tourists into the former Portuguese colony,
which has had only a trickle of tourists since the start of the
pandemic, comes after Beijing reopened its borders with the rest
of the world for the first time in three years in January.
   Macau had only 15,000 average daily visits in 2022.
   "It’s very nice that the Chinese government has reopened the
border again, so I can go anywhere freely and do not need to
quarantine and visit my relatives," said a woman visiting from
Hong Kong, who gave her surname as Wong.
    Many hotel resorts on Macau’s Las Vegas style strip have
been sold out for the holiday period, executives said.
    Inside the city’s opulent casino resorts, visitors milled
through retail stores such as Sands China's  1928.HK  gondola
filled Venetian property, while others clamoured for photos at
popular tourist spots including the landmark Ruins of St Paul’s.
    Local residents said they hoped the rise in visitors would
bring a permanent boost to the city's beleaguered economy. 
    "It’s a huge difference compared to the lockdown policies
during COVID and it feels like the economy can recover quickly,
but I am still unemployed now because of COVID," said a local
man surnamed Chan. 
  
 (Writing by Farah Master; Editing by Kim Coghill)
 ((farah.master@thomsonreuters.com; +852 3462 7709;))