Online Challenge traditional travel agencies

Receipts of travel agencies amounted to MOP6.53 billion (US$813.82 million) last year, up slightly by 0.5 per cent year-on-year, according to the Travel Agencies Survey 2016 – released yesterday by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).
Receipts from Package Tours increased by 2.5 per cent to MOP2.00 billion, representing 30.7 per cent of total receipts, with receipts for Room Reservations going up 2 per cent to MOP1.11 billion.
However, Passenger Transport Ticketing in 2016 suffered a decrease of 6.2 per cent from the previous year, down to MOP1.78 billion, continuing the fall in the travel agency service after a 18.1 per cent annual decrease was registered in 2015.
This decrease was attributed by the DSEC to the growing popularity of online bookings of transport – including air, ferry, train, and bus tickets – through other travel websites.
However, this growing popularity in online transport bookings wasn’t registered in the total receipts from travel agencies’ online business, which fell by 11.1 per cent in 2016 to around MOP156 million.
The amount of receipts derived from the Rental of Coaches with Driver increased by 15.6 per cent in 2016 to around MOP977 million, but receipts for the Rental of Vehicles decreased by 9.6 per cent to MOP184 million.
Receipts for the purchase of tickets to amusement parks & entertainment performances saw the largest annual increase, going up 27.9 per cent in 2016 to some MOP113 million.

Numerous travel agencies
The official data also indicates that for the whole year of 2016 there were a total of 256 travel agencies operating, six more than in the previous year, with the number of people engaged in the industry falling by 239 to 4,246.
Gross Value Added – measuring the sector’s contribution to the economy – amounted to MOP944 million, a fall of 1 per cent year-on-year during the period.
The Gross Surplus of travel agencies decreased by 11.4 per cent year-on-year to MOP299 million, due to a slight 0.9 per cent increase in the sector’s expenditure, which reached MOP6.30 billion in 2016.
Of the total expenses, Purchase of Goods & Services and Commission Paid represented 75 per cent of the total, with MOP4.73 billion registered in 2016.