National Day Holiday to Greatly Benefit MacaoIt is estimated that as many as 100,000 tourists from the inland areas of China might come to the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) during the seven-day holiday period from October 1 to 7.People with the tourism sector in Macao said the tourists will spend 25 million patacas (about 3.1 million U.S. dollars) here and the businesses dealing in special local products, souvenirs, gold ornaments and catering will benefit the most. Following Hong Kong, the inland areas have been the second leading source of tourists for Macao. During the first half of this year, tourists from the inland areas accounted for 23.5 percent of the total tourists to the Macao SAR. However, Macao is short of tourist guides proficient in Mandarin. Only 150 out of the 500 tourist guides in Macao know Mandarin while others speak the local spoken language of Cantonese. Tourism has been a pillar sector of the local economy. This year, the tourism authorities plan to attract 8 million tourists, nearly 20 times Macao's population. |
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