Macau, May 25, 2020: The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the tourism would-wide. As tourism is of utmost importance for the economy of Macau, CSG interviewed 103 tourists in Macau by face-to-face interview from March to May 2020, in order to keep updated to the market.
Most of the interviewed visitors (93%) came from Mainland China. As tourists who return to China have to stay 14 days for medical observation, the visitors are not likely to have a brief stay in Macau. The results of the survey indicated that tourists to Macau stay relatively longer time with 6.7 days on average, in which nearly 60% (59%) stayed for 5 days or more.
Regarding their travel purposes, nearly three-fifths (59%) visited Macau mainly for gaming, followed by shopping (14%) and vacation (14%). Majority had actually gamed (87%) and shopped (80%) in this trip to Macau.
They are experienced visitors to Macau. On average, they visited Macau for 5.8 times in the past 12 months.
Their lengthy stay in Macau contributes to their high consumption amount. Their per capita consumption in this trip was MOP 45,539 excluding their gaming budget. Analyzed by items, on average MOP 15,523 was spent on food and beverage, MOP 23,550 was spent on shopping, MOP 5195 was spent on accommodations and MOP 1,271 was spent on other categories. Regarding their gaming budget, the average amount was MOP 87,000, and the range was from MOP 1,000 to MOP 500,000.
Visitors were generally satisfied with their trip in Macau. More than two-thirds (71%) rated 8 or higher in a 10 point scale. Although more than a fifth (22%) of tourists believed the quarantine at the border brought inconvenience to them, many visitors actually appreciated the epidemic prevention made Macau a safe city to travel (19%). As ever, Macau maintained a high service standard (18%) of tourism. Moreover, shops in Macau have recently carried out price reduction, and the wide variety of shopping items (14%) have given the visitors good travel experiences
Mr. Derek Yu, Research Director of CSG commented that the findings shows a group of high spending visitors are loyal to Macau. As there are lack of similar destinations of leisure and entertainment in the region, some of them still decide to visit Macau during the pandemic. Compared with mass market, the consumption of these loyal and regular customers may be less affected by the economic and social environment. Therefore, enterprises should identify the high value segments and maintain close relationship with these customers, which could offer a buffer to their business during downturn periods.
