The aggregate number of visitors to Macau rose by 8 percent year-on-year in the first six months of 2018, to slightly above 16.81 million, according to data released on Monday by the city’s Statistics and Census Service.
In the six months to June 30, the number of overnight visitors rose by 8.3 percent year-on-year to nearly 8.77 million while the tally of same-day visitors increased by 7.8 percent to 8.04 million.
The number of tourists from mainland China rose by 13.3 percent from the prior-year period, to 11.71 million in the first six months of 2018.
In June alone, visitor arrivals to Macau increased by 9.4 percent year-on-year to over 2.60 million, said the statistics bureau.
The number of overnight and same-day visitors to Macau last month rose by 7.2 percent and 12.4 percent year-on-year respectively, to nearly 1.45 million and 1.16 million. The average length of stay of visitors in June was 1.3 days, on a par with the previous month as well as with the same month last year.
Monday’s data showed a 13.5 percent year-on-year increase in the number of visitors from mainland China in June, to 1.75 million. The tally of visitors under the Individual Visit Scheme was up 15 percent year-on-year in June, to approximately 810,300.
In June, Mainland Chinese visitors came mainly from Guangdong province, Hunan province and Fujian province, according to the statistics bureau. Nearly 1 million of the inbound visitors from mainland China last month stayed overnight in the city, an increase of 11.1 percent from a year earlier.
The number of visitors from Hong Kong and Taiwan – the second- and third-most important source markets respectively – increased by 2.0 percent and 7.8 percent respectively compared to the prior-year period. The number of visitors from South Korea however dropped by 13.4 percent.
In the first six months of 2018, the number of visitors from Hong Kong and South Korea dropped by 3.7 percent and 2.2 percent respectively, while visitor arrivals from Taiwan were up 0.9 percent compared to the same period in 2017.
