As visitor arrivals to China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) topped 16.67 million in the year 2004, the tourist industry has brought great profits and huge challenges to the city famed for its lucrative gaming industry.

Macao, which will be the host city of the 2005 PATA Annual Conference in April, is enjoying a rising international reputation as a popular tourist city in Asia, and could not allow the gaming business dampen the city's tourist image.

Joao Manuel Costa Antunes, director of the Macao Government Tourist Office (MGTO), said at a press conference here Wednesday that to add to the city's cultural and leisure tourist initiatives, Macao should develop various tourist products such as health and beauty tours, sports and convention tours and ecology tours to lure tourists of different interests.

He said that in 2005, Macao is looking forward to the confirmation of the World Heritage list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for its application of "Historical Monuments of Macao," which consist of 12 architectural sites in Macao.

"By promoting the cultural tourism, we will make visitors aware of Macao's unique blend of Chinese and Portuguese cultures," said Antunes.

Tourism and gaming industries are two of Macao's economic pillars. The SAR government reaped 14 billion patacas (US$1.75 billion) in gaming tax in 2004, after liberalizing the gaming sector in 2002.

However, the tourist official emphasized that a favorable tourist environment and high standards of service are crucial factors to building up Macao's image as a quality destination.

"We will improve tourism facilities and develop brand new attractions while updating the relevant bills to cultivate a healthy tourism industry," said Antunes.

Under the objective of the SAR government to develop Macao into a tourism, gaming, MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) and leisure hub, a series of new tourism and entertainment facilities have started operation or will be completed soon.

Macao hosted a total of 16.67 million visitor arrivals in 2004,representing a surge of 40 percent over 2003, which went close to the saturating point of city's tourist accommodating capacity of 16.79 million a year.

Among the total, 9.5 million were visitors from China's mainland, which increased by an annual growth rate of 66 percent over the previous year. Autunes expected the number of visitors from the source market will continue to rise based on closer cooperation and exchanges between the mainland and Macao.

At present, over 30 percent of the mainland travelers came under the mainland's facilitated individual travel measures on Hong Kong and Macao-bound tours, which were initiated on July 28,2003.

Macao's present tourist facilities could hardly accommodate the rising number of tourists. Currently, there are 43 hotels and 33 guesthouses in Macao offering a total of 10,502 hotel rooms. In the next seven years, another 16,750 hotel rooms will come off stream to meet the tourist demand, according to the tourist authority.

(Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2005)