Visitor arrivals to Macau topped 2.76 million in September, up by 8.0 percent year-on-year, show the latest data from the city’s Statistics and Census Service released on Tuesday.
Macau had an aggregate of nearly 1.39 million same-day visitors last month, up 20.4 percent when compared to a year ago. Meanwhile, the tally of overnight visitors dropped by 2.3 percent year-on-year to nearly 1.38 million.
“As the proportion of same-day visitors expanded by 5.2 percentage points year-on-year to 50.2 percent, the average length of stay of visitors shortened by 0.1 day to 1.3 days,” said the statistics bureau. The tourist arrival data for September indicated that the duration of visit for overnighters and same-day visitors was 2.4 days and 0.2 of a day respectively.
In September the number of visitors from mainland China expanded by 5.7 percent year-on-year to slightly above 1.92 million. The tally of visitors under the Individual Visit Scheme – mainland China’s exit permit system for outbound tourists travelling independently rather than in tour groups – was up 1.0 percent year-on-year last month, to 795,990.
Macau’s visitor arrivals in the nine months to September 30 rose by 17.0 percent from the prior-year period to 30.20 million. Same-day visitor numbers rose by 30.6 percent year-on-year in the period, to nearly 15.93 million; while the number of overnight visitors increased by 4.9 percent to 14.27 million.
Mainland China residents accounted for 71.0 percent of the aggregate number of visitors in the first nine months this year, or nearly 21.46 million visitors, up 17.7 percent from the prior-year period.
The head of the Macao Government Tourism Office, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, said earlier this month that the tally of tourist arrivals to Macau this year would probably be “close to” 40 million. A trend of year-on-year growth in November and December arrivals was likely to be sustained this year said Ms Senna Fernandes, speaking to local media.
The total of visitor arrivals to Macau in full-year 2018 was slightly above 35.80 million, up 9.8 percent from 2017, according to official data.
Investment analysts have said that headline visitor numbers need not be positively correlated to overall gaming demand, as gross gaming revenue (GGR) in the Macau market has been typically skewed to high-end play.
