Macau’s number of visitor arrivals rose by 173.1 percent year-on-year to 427,122 last month, the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) announced yesterday.
A DSEC statement pointed out that the COVID-19 epidemic intensified in February last year. Macau confirmed its first novel coronavirus disease case on January 22, 2020.
Month-on-month, February’s number of visitor arrivals fell by 23.3 percent. The bureau attributed the month-on-month decline to a string of COVID-19 prevention and control measures imposed by many countries and regions.
Year-on-year, overnight visitors (245,309) and same-day visitors (181,813) increased by 225.8 percent and 124.2 percent last month. Visitors’ average length of stay dropped by 0.9 of a day year-on-year to 1.9 days.
The number of mainland visitors leapt by 426.4 percent year-on-year to 380,649, or 89.1 percent of the total number of visitor arrivals last month. The number of mainlanders travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme (163,157) soared by 2,702 percent.
Last month also recorded 40,037 visitors from Hong Kong and 6,410 visitors from Taiwan.
Foreigners without the right of residence in Macau have been barred from Macau since March last year.
In the first two months, the number of visitor arrivals declined by 67.3 percent year-on-year to 983,887.
