NZ Herald Friday 31 March 2017 Overseas visitors are an increasingly common sight in China’s gambling territory of Macau, which is trying to diversify an economic model that has depended on mainland high rollers for more than a decade.
The economy in the tiny former Portuguese colony, billed the Las Vegas of the East, has been pounded over the last two years by a drop in Chinese gamblers due to President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign and a slowing economy.
Now the government has hearkened calls to reposition Macau as a tourism destination, with the number of international visitors growing 8 per cent last year from 2015, compared with those from greater China edging up only 0.1 per cent. Read more…
