Macau’s number of Chinese New Year (CNY) Golden Week visitor arrivals fell 65.3 percent to 90,615 compared to the same CNY holiday period last year, the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) announced yesterday.
In 2020, the CNY Golden Week from January 24 to 30 recorded a decline of 78 percent, coinciding with the start of the COVID-19 crisis in Macau, which confirmed its first novel coronavirus disease case on January 22 last year.
The daily average of visitor arrivals between last Thursday (Chinese New Year’s Eve) and Wednesday this week (the sixth day of the CNY) amounted to 12,945, considerably below the daily average of 16,000 to 20,000 visitor arrivals forecast by MGTO last week.
Sunday, which marked both the third day of the CNY and Valentine’s Day, recorded 17,357 visitor arrivals, the highest daily number of visitors during the CNY Golden Week.
Mainlanders accounted for 90.7 percent of all visitor arrivals during the seven-day holiday period. Only 8,424 tourists other than mainlanders visited Macau during that period, mostly Taiwanese and Hongkongers.
Foreign nationals without a residency permit here have been barred from entering Macau since March last year.
Some 60.6 percent of all CNY Golden Week visitor arrivals entered Macau via the Barrier Gate checkpoint. Only 6,702 visitors entered Macau via the local airport during the seven-day holiday period.
