Macau’s number of visitor arrivals reached 28.2 million last year, a year-on-year growth of 394.9 percent from 2022’s 5.70 million, according to tourism data released by the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) yesterday.
The bureau pointed out in a statement that last year’s figure recovered to 71.6 percent of the 39.4 million recorded in pre-pandemic 2019.
Macau confirmed its first COVID-19 case in January 2020. The pandemic severely impacted Macau’s tourism industry for three years.
Last year, overnight visitors (14.22 million) and same-day visitors (13.98 million) leapt by 472.7 percent and 334.8 percent year on year respectively.
Visitors’ average length of stay fell by 0.2 day to 1.3 days, with that of overnight visitors (2.3 days) dipping by 1.1 days, while that of same-day visitors (0.3 day) rose by 0.2 day.
The number of mainland visitors grew by 273.1 percent to nearly 19.05 million, accounting for 67.5 percent of Macau’s visitor arrivals last year.
Hong Kong visitors rose by 1,301.5 percent to 7.19 million, or 25.5 percent of the total number of visitor arrivals in 2023.
The statement did not mention last year’s number of Taiwan visitors.
Nearly 1.46 million foreign nationals visited Macau last year, a year-on-year increase of 10,589.7 percent. Foreigners accounted for 5.2 percent of all visitor arrivals in 2023.
Last year’s number of mainland, Hong Kong and foreign visitor arrivals returned to 68.2 percent, 97.8 percent and 47.6 percent of the corresponding levels in 2019.
Some 2.1 million visitors arrived by air, up by 783.3 percent year on year. The remainder arrived by land (79.3 percent of the total number of visitor arrivals) or ferry (13.1 percent of the total).
Locals and tourists alike throng Rua do Cunha in Taipa village last month.
– Photo: MGTO
