Macau’s tourist price index for the second quarter of 2021 dropped by 3.9 percent year-on-year to 116.93 points, indicated information from the city’s Statistics and Census Service released on Tuesday.
The decrease was “mainly attributable to lower hotel room rates and falling airfares,” said the statistics service.
The index’s performance was partially offset by rising charges for restaurant services and dearer prices of clothing.
Macau’s tourist price index reflects the price change of goods and services purchased by visitors. Prices of casino gaming services are not part of the index.
Among the various sections of goods and services, the respective price indices for accommodation (-30.2 percent) and transport and communications (-10.0 percent) declined year-on-year.
The respective indices for clothing and footwear (+5.6 percent) and restaurant services (+4.4 percent) registered increases.
The second-quarter tourist price index rose by 1.0 percent judged quarter-on-quarter.
The average tourist price index for the four quarters up to June 30 this year declined by 11.7 percent from the previous comparable period.
In those four consecutive quarters, the price index of accommodation plunged by 45.3 percent, and the indices of transport and communications, and clothing and footwear decreased by 5.4 percent and 5.2 percent respectively.
For the first half of 2021, Macau’s tourist price index went down by 9.9 percent year-on-year. In the first five months of the year, the number of visitor arrivals to Macau rose by 4.7 percent year-on-year to 3.4 million.
