Macau recorded 932,365 visitor arrivals during the Mid-Autumn Festival/National Day "Golden Week" holiday between September 29 and October 6, the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) announced yesterday.
According to an MGTO statement, the daily average number of visitor arrivals during the eight-day period reached nearly 84 percent of the one in the corresponding period in pre-pandemic 2019.
Last Saturday, September 30, the day after the Mid-Autumn Festival, recorded 158,726 visitor arrivals, the highest single-day number since the COVID-19 pandemic began to severely affect Macau's tourism industry in January 2020.
The "Golden Week" visitor arrivals comprised 709,079 mainlanders, 171,672 Hongkongers, 10,683 Taiwanese, and 40,931 foreigners. The latter accounted for 4.4 percent of all visitor arrivals.
During the eight-day holiday, the daily number of visitor arrivals averaged 116,546.
According to the MGTO statement, hotels' average guestroom occupancy rate stood at 87.9 percent during the eight days. The average occupancy rate reached 94.3 percent on October 1, National Day, this year's highest.
The average room rate of Macau's hotels and inns was around 1,800 patacas during the holiday, a year-over-year increase of 61.7 percent from last year's National Day holiday, MGTO noted.
Retailers and restaurateurs have told The Macau Post Daily that the "Golden Week" visitors more cautious about spending this time.
According to official statistics, Macau's 136 hotels and inns at the end of August comprised 45,000 guestrooms. Macau's population living on just 33.3 square kilometres stood at 678,800 at the end of June, according to the latest available demographics.
Meanwhile, MGTO Director Helena de Senna Fernandes told reporters on Monday that she expected Macau's visitor arrivals to reach 25 million this year, compared to just 5.7 million last year when the special administrative region was still affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In pre-pandemic 2019, Macau logged 39.4 million visitor arrivals.
Macau confirmed its first COVID-19 case in January 2020.
Caption: Two MGTO inspectors monitor the tourism situation at the Ruins of St Paul's during the eight-day "Golden Week" holiday period that ended on Friday. Photo: MGTO
