Macau's number of guests of hotel and guesthouses dropped 79.7 percent year-on-year to 240,000 in March, the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) has announced.
According to a DSEC statement this week, the number of guests from the Chinese mainland (170,000) and Hong Kong (44,000) declined 79.8 percent and 58.8 percent respectively. Guests from other countries and territories fell by more than 90 percent.
Guests' average length of stay rose by 0.5 night year-on-year to 1.9 nights.
A total of 112 hotels and guesthouses were open for business in March (two hotels were booked by the government as COVID-19 quarantine facilities for the whole of the month). The number of available guestrooms dipped 13.2 percent year-on-year to 34,000.
Data on hotels and guesthouses used by the government as quarantine facilities were excluded from the bureau's statistics on the hotel sector.
The average occupancy rate of guestrooms fell 67.6 percentage points year-on-year to 23.2 percent, yet representing an increase of 8.0 percentage points compared to February. The rate of 5-star hotels (16.9 percent) dropped by 74.9 percentage points, while the rates of 2-star hotels (47.9 percent) and guesthouses (46.1 percent) dropped 27.1 and 19.6 percentage points respectively.
In the first quarter, the average occupancy rate of guestrooms stood at 41.4 percent, a decline of 50.5 percentage points year-on-year. Guests at hotels and guesthouses fell 57.6 percent to 1.47 million.
According to the bureau, there were only 100 package tour visitors in March, while the number of residents who booked outbound trips through travel agencies plummeted by 99 percent to 1,400. In the first quarter, 253,000 package tour visitors were recorded, a fall of 89.5 percent year-on-year.
Macau's economy has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, its tourism, gaming, retail and media sectors in particular.
Macau has recorded 45 COVID-19 cases since January 22. There have been not deaths caused by the novel coronavirus.
