The Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) has said that according to Public Security Police (PSP) provisional data, Macau recorded 8.88 million visitor arrivals during the first quarter of this year, a year-on-year increase of 79.6 percent.
The average daily number of visitor arrivals during the first three months of this year, which stood at 97,637, returned to 84.8 percent of the level recorded in the same period of pre-pandemic 2019, an MGTO statement on Thursday said.
According to the statement, the 8.88 million visitor arrivals recorded during this year’s first quarter comprised 6.3 million from the mainland, 1.82 million from Hong Kong, 182,000 from China’s Taiwan region, and 585,000 foreign visitors.
The number of visitor arrivals from the mainland during this year’s first quarter increased 94.6 percent from the same period of last year, the statement said.
The average daily number of visitor arrivals from the mainland during 2024’s first three months, which stood at 69,239, returned to 83.7 percent of the one recorded in the same period in 2019, the statement said.
The statement also said that Macau recorded a daily average of 6,424 foreign visitor arrivals during this year’s first quarter, returning to 67.5 percent of the one recorded in the same period in 2019.
Meanwhile, the statement also announced the number of visitor arrivals from Shaanxi’s provincial capital of Xi’an and Shandong’s port city of Qingdao, the two cities that were newly added to the central government’s Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) from March 6 this year, during this year’s first quarter.
The Individual Visit Scheme enables mainlanders to visit Hong Kong and Macau as an individual traveller.
After including Xi’an and Qingdao, 51 cities in the mainland are covered by the scheme. Those from other cities not covered by the scheme can only visit Hong Kong and Macau by joining tour groups.
According to the MGTO statement, Macau recorded 47,000 visitor arrivals from Xi’an and 24,000 from Qingdao during the first quarter of this year, an increase of 6.4 percent and 44.5 percent from the same period of pre-pandemic 2019.
Meanwhile, the statement also said that Macau recorded a daily average of 42,505 hotel overnight guests during the first two months of this year, an increase of 8.8 percent from 2019’s same period.
This file photo released by the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) last week shows spectators watching a firework display, at the lakeside of Nam Van Lake during this year Chinese New Year.
