Saturday, June 1, 2019
The idea of a tourist tax in Macau is for combating issues relating to the city’s tourism capacity.
Macau is expected to witness more than 38 million tourists this year, according to the local tourism bureau. The city saw more than 35.8 million tourists last year. In comparison, the whole of Japan received only 31.2 million visitors in 2018, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.
In a keynote speech last week at the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia 2019, Daisy Ho Chiu Fung, the chairman and executive director of Macau casino operator SJM Holdings Ltd., suggested that Macau needs to move upmarket and increase the length of stay of visitors.
A Macau study said that the optimum tourist “carrying capacity” of Macau is between 32.6 million and 33.7 million visitors. Thus, infrastructure improvements need to be made, including the border crossing facilities from mainland China, at Gongbei and the Lotus Bridge.
The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) said that it had launched a survey on the tourist tax to the city.
Tags: Macau, Tourist tax
