Visitors to Macau spent MOP15.93 billion (US$1.98 billion), excluding gaming expenses, for the third quarter of 2017, up by 8.8 percent year-on-year and 15.9 percent sequentially, show data from the city’s Statistics and Census Service.
In the third quarter of 2017, per-capita spending of visitors to Macau was MOP1,926, up by 6.7 percent from the prior-year period, according to the results of a tourist consumption survey by the statistics bureau released on Monday.
The largest single sector attracting Macau visitor non-gaming spend in the third quarter was shopping. It accounted for 46.4 percent of the per capita outlay of visitors, according to the latest data. Spending on accommodation and on food and beverage completed the top three, accounting for respectively 26.7 percent and 19.3 percent of the overall spending during the reporting period.
Macau welcomed 8.27 million visitors in the three months to September 30, up by 2.1 percent year-on-year. Visitors from mainland China accounted for approximately 69.6 percent of the total, according to official data.
Travellers to Macau from mainland China remained the highest-spending visitors in the third quarter of 2017. Official data showed that the aggregate outlay of all visitors from mainland China grew by 11.6 percent compared to the prior-year period. It totalled MOP12.64 billion in the July to September period, representing 79.4 percent of the total spending by all visitors to the city. Judged year-on-year, per capita expenditure of mainland Chinese visitors increased by 4.6 percent, to MOP2,197.
Annual aggregate non-gaming spending by visitors to Macau is expected to rise to between US$12 billion and US$14 billion in 2025, said the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) in a 15-year master plan for the sector published in September.
