Macau commemorates 25 years since its handover to China while grappling with post-pandemic tourism decline. Dragon's beard candy maker shares his story, highlighting the impact on his business. The city seeks ways to attract more visitors and showcase its rich culture.
Macau , like Hong Kong, has been hailed by Beijing as the exemplary child of its “one country, two systems” style of governance. Macau native Yuen Tin Yau has been handmaking and selling the traditional dragon’s beard candy for more than 40 years. The 77-year-old remains proud of his product, which is made of maltose and flour with fillings like peanuts and sesame. The snack has been inscribed on the list of Macau ’s Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2020.
“In terms of sales volume, before COVID-19 of course it was so much better. After COVID-19, it went down quite a lot … at least more than 10 per cent,” he told CNA. This was a result of a dip in the number of tourists to the special Chinese administrative region, which has been looking at how to tackle such challenges. It comes as the city on Friday (Dec 20) marks 25 years since it returned to China in 1999, after more than 400 years of being ruled by the Portuguese.According to the Macau Tourism Office, visitors from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan make up the top three markets to the region. In the first 10 months of this year, more than 20 million Chinese visitors set foot in Macau. But during the height of the pandemic in 2020, the number of such tourists dwindled to just about 5 million. Renowned largely for its flashy and lucrative casino industry, the former Portuguese colony is fairly unfamiliar to western visitors. “They need to spread the culture, I think. If other people know the culture, they will be more interested to come here and to meet and see all these beautiful places,” said Italian tourist Pietro Puccio. Fellow Italian tourist Michael Moreni told CNA he does not gamble but Macau is “really beautiful anyway”
Macau Tourism China Cultural Heritage Post-Pandemic Recovery
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