Macau saw a 30.7-percent year-on-year increase in visitor arrivals for 2021, with the full-year inbound-tourist tally at nearly 7.71 million, according to data released on Thursday by Macau’s Statistics and Census Service. Last year’s figure however represented a decline of more than 80.0 percent compared to 2019.
The data comes against the background of disruption to travel and tourism amid new variants of the virus causing Covid-19 infection.
The average length of stay of visitors to Macau went up by 0.2 of a day year-on-year to 1.6 days in full-year 2021, with that of overnight visitors (3.2 days) rising by 0.4 of a day, according to the statistics bureau.
The number of overnight visitors for full-year 2021 stood at nearly 3.70 million, up 31.0 percent from a year earlier. The tally of overnight visitors accounted for 48.0 percent of the total number of visitor arrivals, showed the official data.
The number of same-day visitors to Macau rose by up by 30.4 percent year-on-year, to about 4.01 million.
In 2021, Macau received about 7.05 million visitor arrivals from mainland China, an increase of 48.2 percent compared to the previous year. Those travelling under Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) reached nearly 2.45 million, up 31.3 percent from 2020.
The mainland remains the only place to have a largely-quarantine free travel arrangement with Macau.
Visitors from Hong Kong (589,014) and Taiwan (70,950) decreased by 30.1 percent and 31.9 percent year-on-year, respectively. Macau still has its borders closed to travellers from overseas.
In December, visitor arrivals totalled 820,870, a growth of 2.4 percent month-on-month, showed the data.
