New Covid-19 cases in mainland China may slow down the recovery of Macau

Andy Wu Keng Kuong, the president of Macau Travel Industry Council, and an investor in the casino resort Ponte 16, Hoffman Ma Ho Man, both believed that it was still too early to tell if newly reported Covid-19 cases would affect Macau’s summer travel trade.

Mainland China is the only place to have a largely quarantine-free travel bubble with Macau. Guangdong province has been the largest source of the city’s inbound mainland tourists in recent months.

However, in recent days, the number of mainland communities where residents would be subject to quarantine on arrival in Macau, has been growing.

Communities in Guangdong cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen were this week added to Macau’s quarantine-on-arrival list this week, according to updates made by Macau’s Covid-19 task force.

Success Universe’s Mr Ma believed that the coming “two to three weeks” would be the key time to watch if mainland cases were curbed.

The Ponte 16 boss added: “The summer break would still look positive for Macau, provided that the Covid-19 infection cases were all contained in the coming two to three weeks on the mainland.”

Mr Ma said he had expected Macau to see continuous recovery in mass market and resort visit business in July and August, a peak time for families’ outbound travel.

Macau Travel Industry Council’s Mr Wu said that his group estimated Macau would welcome a daily average of 30,000 to 40,000 tourists for July and August, assuming the travel ties with Hong Kong had not yet resumed by then.

But he admitted that the recent reports of infections in mainland China posed uncertainty on the timing of further easing of travel ties between the mainland and Macau.

The mainland’s electronic application system for Individual Visit Scheme exit visas is yet to be reinstated. Group travel visas are also yet to be resumed.

Editing by Rachel Hu