Visitors to Macau spent an aggregate of MOP15.71 billion (US$1.94 billion), excluding gaming expenses, in the second quarter 2019, down 4.8 percent year-on-year, according to the latest visitor expenditure survey released on Wednesday by the city’s Statistics and Census Service.
Overnight visitors spent nearly four times as much on aggregate during the period than same-day tourists. According to the official data, overnight visitors to Macau spent an aggregate of MOP12.28 billion in the reporting period, down by 8.1 percent in year-on-year terms. Their per-capita spending stood at MOP2,585, 14.2 percent less than a year ago.
Aggregate spending by same-day visitors grew by 9.3 percent year-on-year to MOP3.43 billion “on account of an upsurge of 35.0 percent in number of same-day visitors” to Macau, said the statistics bureau. But the per-capita spending of same-day visitors stood at MOP663, down 19.1 percent from the second quarter 2018.
In the three months to June 30, the aggregate per-capita spending of visitors to Macau was MOP1,583, a decline of 20.7 percent from a year earlier, and down for three consecutive quarters, the official data showed.
Shopping remained the largest-single category for Macau visitor non-gaming spend in the second quarter, accounting for 44.8 percent of total outlay. Spending on accommodation and on food and drink completed the top three categories, accounting for respectively 26.3 percent and 20.8 percent of the overall spending during the quarter.
Macau saw 9.93 million visitors in the three months to June 30, up by 20.0 percent year-on-year. The aggregate tally of visitors to Macau for the first half of this year rose by 20.6 percent year-on-year to slightly above 20.28 million, of which nearly 70.6 percent were visitors from mainland China.
The statistics bureau’s tourist arrival data for the first half of this year indicated the average length of stay of visitors to Macau slightly shortened judged year on year: by 0.1 day to 1.1 days. The duration of visit for overnighters and same-day visitors was 2.2 days and 0.2 day respectively.
Travellers to Macau from mainland China were the highest-spending visitors in the second quarter of this year in aggregate terms. But according to the statistics service, the per-capita outlay of visitors from mainland China fell by 24.1 percent compared to the prior-year period, to MOP1,796.
During the second quarter, visitors from Singapore ranked first in terms of per capita expenditure, at MOP1,803, up 5.8 percent. South Korean visitors were the third highest spenders in per capita terms, at MOP1,648, 16.7 percent higher than a year ago.
