Macau welcomed more than 362,600 visitors in the three-day Christmas season period from December 23 to December 25 inclusive, according to official data. Preliminary figures from the city’s Public Security Police indicate that the average daily number of visitor arrivals during the holiday period was close to 121,000.
The daily average for the Christmas season held up well compared to the previous tourist peak period in Macau: the eight days encompassing China’s National Day in the autumn. In that earlier festive season, daily visitor arrivals had averaged 116,546, according to official data.
The Christmas season’s highest daily total was on Saturday, at 133,603. On Christmas Eve, Sunday (December 24), Macau logged 120,594 arrivals, followed by 108,446 on Christmas Day, according to the figures released by the authorities.
Christmas is not a holiday in Macau’s main tourist feeder market mainland China, but it is an official break period in Hong Kong, the second most important source of tourists for Macau. Today (December 26) is still a holiday in Hong Kong.
The police did not supply a breakdown on visitors’ respective place of origin during the Christmas period. However, the majority of tourists entered Macau either via the Border Gate checkpoint, between Macau and mainland China; or the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge.
Representatives from the gaming and travel sectors respectively had previously told GGRAsia, ahead of the Christmas season, that they expected visitor volume to the city to be strong during the holiday period, despite relatively cold weather for southern China.
