Taking the symbolic meaning of cultural symbols as the starting point, this paper aims to explore the effective methods for the design of Macau tourist souvenirs and promote the cultural dissemination of Macau and the development of the tourist souvenir industry. Firstly, a necessary introduction to the development of Macau’s tourism industry is made, the research results of domestic and foreign scholars on the attributes and development of tourism souvenirs are combed and analyzed, and the necessity of studying the design of Macau’s tourism souvenirs from the perspective of cultural symbols is drawn. Secondly, through the elaboration of the concept of symbols, the thematic categories of cultural symbols are defined, and then the design framework of tourist souvenirs is constructed by borrowing symbolic methods and metaphorical symbolic methods of cultural symbols. Finally, the content of Macau cultural symbols are investigated and classified, the design method of Macau tourist souvenirs are given, and illustrated with design examples. The borrowing of cultural symbols and metaphorical design methods can effectively help designers complete the design of tourist souvenirs from a symbolic perspective that the key is to find the symbolic connection between cultural symbols and tourist souvenirs. This is of great value to the research of design theory and the design innovation of tourist souvenirs.