bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Fox Yi Hu

Warmer ties across the Taiwan Strait has led to a decline in the number of Taiwanese visitors to Macau, leaving the city to seek a replacement for its third biggest source of gamblers.
Monthly arrivals from Taiwan have been falling year on year for 11 consecutive months as direct flights between the mainland and Taiwan increase.
Economist and gaming analyst Zeng Zhonglu  said the number of Taiwanese visitors could fall further this year if the number of direct cross-strait flights continued to grow.
Last month there were  103,571 Taiwanese visitors to Macau, down 15.8 per cent from a year ago. A total of 1.32 million Taiwanese arrived last year, down 8.4 per cent from 2007.
Before the launch of regular direct flights, Taiwanese had to transit in Hong Kong or Macau to visit the mainland.
Dick Chen,  director of the Guangzhou-based Taiwanese Enterprises Association, said fewer Taiwanese businessmen were stopping over in Macau.
'Some Taiwanese who work in Zhuhai  or Zhongshan  still travel via Macau, but many have switched to direct flights to and from Guangzhou,' Mr Chen said.
Direct charter flights across the Taiwan Strait began in July  from a few mainland cities. They gradually increased in frequency and involved more cities, with the first daily direct flights being launched last month.
Taiwanese accounted for 4.4 per cent of Macau's visitor arrivals last year, while mainlanders accounted for 58 per cent and Hongkongers 27.3 per cent.
Transit passengers from Taiwan who do not leave Macau airport  are not counted as visitors.
Southeast Asia, if taken as a whole, overtook Taiwan as Macau's third biggest source market last year, accounting for 5.2 per cent of  arrivals.
However, analysts said the counting of Southeast Asian arrivals was skewed by the huge number of people who came to work in Macau.
Government economist and legislator Lao Pun-lap  said Macau urgently needed to expand its source markets in Asia and rely less on mainland gamblers.
He said Macau should open more flights to Asian countries, especially Japan, the wealthiest nation in the region.
Mr Lao saw high growth potential in the Japanese market, as Japanese visitors accounted for just 1.2 per cent of Macau's arrivals last year.
Macau's tourism chief, Joao Manuel Costa Antunes,  said this month that the government was trying to attract more tourists from Southeast Asia.
Progress has been made on expanding several source markets in Southeast Asia. Visitors from Thailand rose by 81.8 per cent last year, those from Singapore increased by 41.8 per cent and visitors from Malaysia rose 12.3 per cent.
'We need to work closely with partners in Taiwan to promote quality tours, not cheap and fast tours,' he said.
However, Professor Zeng said he doubted that Southeast Asia could provide meaningful growth for Macau. 'Singapore is opening its casino soon and it'll be much easier for the city state to attract Southeast Asian gamblers,' he said.
From January to November last year, Macau airport handled 1.93 million passengers from Taiwan, down from 2.57 million a year ago. Taiwanese accounted for about 40 per cent of Macau's air passengers last year.
Shuffling the deck
Macau has seen a drop in the number of visitor arrivals from Taiwan since the launch of direct cross-strait flights, leaving the gambling centre in search of new source markets
Total arrivals (m, 2004-08)
Taiwan: 6.7
Hong Kong: 33.8
Mainland: 64.1
SOURCE: MACAU CENSUS AND STATISTICS SERVICE



Fewer Taiwanese gamblers as cross-strait ties warm