Few tourists, deserted streets in casino hub Macau after reopening

MACAU - Three years of Covid-19 had forced Ms Becky Zhang’s speciality food business in Macau to near collapse. Founded by her grandmother more than 50 years ago, her store selling pastries and dried beef survived only thanks to residents who bought small quantities to help keep it afloat.

Now, even after the recent reopening of the world’s biggest gambling hub, tourists are few and many businesses remain shuttered, underlining analysts’ views that a recovery will be uneven and take some time.

“Macau has not seen any improvement after the recent reopening of the city because many people are infected with Covid-19, many shops are unable to open, and no (employees) are working,” said Ms Zhang, 40.

“Now not even 1 per cent of the people come to Macau. Many shops on this street closed because they couldn’t hold on... it is miserable,” she added.

Macau, a special Chinese administrative region, had been closely following Beijing’s strict zero-Covid strategy since 2019. But in line with the mainland, it reversed course towards living with the virus on Dec 7.

The densely populated hub of 700,000 sits on China’s southern coastline and has an open border with the mainland, with many people living and working in the neighbouring Chinese city of Zhuhai.

However, Macau has been closed off to the rest of the world, including the neighbouring financial hub Hong Kong, for the past three years.

On Dec 22, the Macau authorities announced that overseas arrivals, including those from Hong Kong and Taiwan, no longer had to take a nucleic acid test after landing and could move freely, the biggest steps yet to relax stringent Covid-19 measures. Previously, visitors were also required to quarantine in a self-paid hotel for a week.

Since reopening, Macau has grappled with a widespread Covid-19 wave, impacting the number of workers in the city. There has been no sizeable uptick in visitor volume in the past week, with industry executives forecasting little change until the Chinese New Year holiday starting on Jan 22.

Some tourists who managed to travel to Macau from the mainland for Christmas said they were happy about the lack of crowds.

Ms Huang Dandan , a 22-year old visiting the Ruins of St Paul’s, one of Macau most famous landmarks, said she did not mind that many of the shops were closed because of the pandemic.

“It is easier for us to take good pictures at popular locations, so I am very happy about it.”

Shanghai residents Oscar Beltran and his wife Marta, originally from Spain, said Macau was their first family holiday in three years.

“Everyone is so excited, people are outside. We are very happy to move around and travel again.” REUTERS