Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes said the city could reach 34 million visitors this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Macau.- Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, the director of Macau\u2019s Government Tourism Office (MGTO), has said she was confident Macau will surpass the target of 33 million visitors this year. Speaking at a\u00a0press conference, she said numbers could reach 34 million, matching the forecast of outgoing chief executive Ho Iat Seng<\/a> in his speech to the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday (November 19).<\/p>\n\n\n\n A week ago, the government reported over 30 million<\/a> visitors so far, already exceeding\u00a0last year\u2019s total of 28.25 million<\/a>. Fernandes told reporters the Macau Grand Prix<\/a> had boosted November\u2019s visitor numbers and expressed optimism for December, traditionally a peak period due to holidays and events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fernandes also highlighted the significance of new infrastructure. The new outdoor venue near the Grand Lisboa Palace will host its first live event on December 28, while Cotai Arena is also soon to open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The MGTO director mentioned that the six casino operators would be involved in organising this year\u2019s Light Up Macau, the annual light festival, which will take place across seven districts and include decorative lighting, projection displays and interactive installations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The number of MICE events held in Macau in the first nine months of the year was up by 29.8 per cent in year-on-year terms. There were\u00a01,011 events, 94 per cent of the number in pre-Covid-19 2019. The sector generated MOP4.48bn (US$557m) in non-gaming revenue. That\u2019s a rise of 5.4 per cent compared to the same period in 2023 (MOP4.26bn).<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were\u00a0943 meetings and conferences, an increase of 30.2 per cent in year-on-year terms. The number of participants grew by 12.7 per cent to136,000. There were\u00a040 exhibitions\u00a0down by four compared to 2023. Exhibitions drew 4,680 exhibitors and 28,295 professional attendees, down by 0.7 per cent and 9.2 per cent year-on-year, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Close to 41 per cent of events during the first nine months of the year revolved around commerce and management (409 events). Other topics included IT (108 events), tourism (108 events), and medical and health (97 events). There were\u00a028 incentives, up by 17. The participant count grew by 16 per cent to 12,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes said the city could reach 34 million visitors this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26653,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Macau's Government Tourism Office projects 34 million visitors this year, exceeding previous targets and 2023 figures, driven by events and new infrastructure. Non-gaming MICE revenue increased by 5.4% year-on-year to MOP4.48bn, with casino operators actively participating in tourism initiatives. This indicates robust recovery and strategic diversification within the jurisdiction.","focusai_entities":"Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, Macau\u2019s Government Tourism Office (MGTO), Ho Iat Seng, Legislative Assembly, Grand Lisboa Palace, Cotai Arena","focusai_location":"Macau, Cotai","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.9), operator_casino (0.98), marketing_crm (0.75), investor_analyst (0.97), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"MICE Revenue Impact","query":"How will the projected increase in MICE events and non-gaming revenue contribute to the overall GGR and NGR for Macau's concessionaires in the upcoming fiscal year?"},{"label":"Operator Strategy Alignment","query":"What specific strategic initiatives are Macau's six casino operators implementing to leverage the anticipated visitor growth and MICE sector expansion, particularly concerning non-gaming asset utilization and marketing spend?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16338],"tags":[23907,23906],"class_list":["post-777020895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-east-asia-news","tag-land-based-casino","tag-macau-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777020895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777020895"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777020895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777020911,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777020895\/revisions\/777020911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777020895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777020895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777020895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}MICE events up 29.8%<\/h2>\n\n\n\n