The head of Macau's tourism department says that the city will focus on the Indian market as part of the its goal to diversify visitors. 

"India is the market that we will focus on and make continuous assessment of the market conditions," said Helena de Senna Fernandes, head of the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO).  

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Although only 30.7 million visitors arrived in Macau in 2015, down by 2.6 percent year-on-year, the city administration still achieved its forecast of more than 30 million by then end of last year, and the city wants to maintain it. 

Visitors from mainland China accounted for 20.4 million while 44 percent came from Guangdong province. Similar to Taiwan, too much reliance to mainland visitors might be Macau's chink in the armor in the future.

Macau has now turned its eyes to India, which has a no-visa agreement with Macau. 

"China is the number one market for Macau, but we hope to increase the number of tourists visiting from India to Macau significantly this year. We consider India as one of the key markets for promotional activities. There is no visa requirement for Indians, an Indian can just land up in Macau and get free entry there," said Arzan Khambatta, head representative of MGTO in India. 

Khambatta said that Macau's unique culture and cuisine, which is a mix of Portuguese and Chinese, will be a key in attracting Indian tourists. 

"Macau has world cuisine like Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese and Indian food is very easily available there. Macau also has to offer unique Macanese cuisine which is the fusion of the Chinese and the Portuguese, something which every Indian should try," Khambatta said. 

MGTO is promoting Macau in India's key cities such as Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, and Delhi. 

TagsMacau tourism, Macau India relations