GGRAsia – 70k-plus daily visit average in June says Macau tourism boss

70k-plus daily visit average in June says Macau tourism boss

Jun 30, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Macau has had a daily average of “over 70,000” visitor arrivals so far June, which was “satisfactory” for a traditionally low-season period, said Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) director, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, in comments to local media on Friday.

Circa “4,000” – i.e., 5.7 percent of the daily average measured so far – came from overseas destinations, according to the tourism bureau’s head.

The June aggregate to date, pushes the daily average for the first six months of this year to “over 60,000”, said Ms Senna Fernandes on the sidelines of a public event.

Macau had an aggregate of nearly 9.44 million visitor arrivals for the first five months of this year, of which just above 6 million – or 64.6 percent – were from mainland China, according to data from Statistics and Census Service.

In the calendar year to May 31, Macau welcomed nearly 2.85 million visitors from Hong Kong, making it the second most important source market for the city’s tourism trade after mainland China. In the same period, arrivals from overseas destinations – i.e. outside Greater China – accounted for fewer than 4 percent of Macau’s 9.44 million visitor arrivals, show data from Macau’s Statistics and Census Service.

The Macau travel trade is “optimistic” about visitor volume during the “summer holiday” period, said Ms Senna Fernandes in her Friday remarks, without citing any specific forecast. Though she noted “almost all” of the city’s inventory of hotel rooms was likely to be in service for the summer season. In the period following relaxation of Covid-19 rules in January, the hotel sector had reported some shortfall in staffing after job cuts during the three years of the pandemic.

As of May, Macau had 130 operating hotels and inns, accounting for an aggregate of 42,900 rooms. Of those properties, 35 were five-star hotels accounting for 25,900 rooms, according to the most recent data from the census service.