The Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) announced today that Macau welcomed 29.67 million visitor arrivals in the first nine months of the year, a year-on-year increase of 14.5 per cent.
Same-day visitors (17.27 million) and overnight visitors (12.39 million) rose by 24.9 per cent and 2.5 per cent, respectively. Overnight visitors stayed for an average of 2.3 nights, unchanged from the same period last year.
Visitors from the Chinese mainland increased by 18.4 per cent to 21.57 million in the first three quarters, accounting for 72.7 per cent of all arrivals.
Arrivals from China’s Hong Kong (5.47 million) and Taiwan (727,062) regions rose by 1.4 per cent and 16.5 per cent, respectively.
International visitor arrivals increased by 12.4 per cent to 1.88 million, accounting for 6.3 per cent of the total. The Philippines (382,851) and South Korea (382,494) continued to be Macau’s main international visitor segments. The United States (112,330) ranked first among long-haul visitor arrivals.
Some 82.7 per cent of visitors in the first nine months arrived by land via the mainland’s Zhuhai City. The remainder arrived by ferry or air.
Last month, visitor arrivals grew by 9.8 per cent year-on-year to 2.77 million, a daily average of 92,504.
Macau's annual visitor arrival record of 39.4 million was reached in 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic began to affect the city in January 2020 and severely impacted local tourism for three consecutive years.
According to the latest available demographics, Macau’s population stood at 685,900 at the end of June
Macau's main tourist attractions are its integrated resorts, UNESCO-listed World Heritage sites and its multifarious cuisine, tour guides say.
Caption: Pedestrians walk along Macau's festively illuminated main square, Largo do Senado, one of the city's top tourist attractions, last night. - Photo: Carl Leong
