Macau recorded nearly 1.40 million visitor arrivals in January 2023, up 101.3 percent year-on-year and 259.0 percent month-on-month, according to data released on Monday by the city’s Statistics and Census Service. The bureau said the increase was due “to the easing of anti-epidemic measures for entry into Macau, and the Lunar New Year holidays”.
Macau had just over 451,000 visitor arrivals in the seven days that mainland China counted as the Chinese New Year holiday for 2023. The daily average over the holiday period was 64,435, with the single-busiest day reaching 90,391. That was the most since before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, in early 2020.
Macau cancelled with effect from January 8 most of its travel restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic, dropping all testing requirements for inbound travellers from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The authorities on the Chinese mainland also substantially eased from January 8 travel restrictions with Hong Kong and Macau, with most Covid-19 controls scrapped.
According to Monday’s data, the number of visitors from mainland China in January grew by 54.5 percent year-on-year, to 991,641, with those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme (707,360) surging by 321.6 percent.
The number of visitors from Hong Kong (356,958) and Taiwan (18,868) rose by 704.3 percent and 139.0 percent year-on-year, respectively.
The data showed that overnight visitors (816,199) and same-day visitors (581,549) increased by 234.5 percent and 29.1 percent year-on-year, respectively.
In full-year 2022, Macau recorded a total of 5.70 million visitor arrivals, down 26.0 percent year-on-year. The 2022 tally was the lowest number of annual visitor arrivals to Macau since 1999, showed official figures.
