Macau’s January visitor arrivals amounted to 3.65 million, up 27.4 percent year-on-year. The increase was led by a surge in the number of same-day trippers, show the latest data from the Statistics and Census Service.
January’s day tripper volume rose 45.6-percent year-on-year, at nearly 2.16 million. That cohort accounted for nearly 60 percent of the city’s aggregate for the month.
In contrast, the number of overnight visitors in January grew 7.9 percent year-on-year, to 1.49 million, the official data indicate. The average stay length of this type of visitor was 2.2 days, unchanged from a year ago.
About 75.4 percent of Macau’s 3.65 million visitors in January – i.e.,2.75 million – were from mainland China. Mainlanders travelling via Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) visas accounted for nearly 1.61 million arrivals, up 44.0 percent year-on-year.
The first day of January marked the start of the implementation of the mainland authorities’ easing measures regarding exit visas for residents of neighbouring Zhuhai to come to Macau.
One measure was a so-called “one-trip-per-week” exit visa for Zhuhai residents, enabling them to visit Macau for up to seven days at a time. In January, a total of 111,698 inbound trips from the mainland involved this method, according to the statistics bureau.
The other measure was that mainlanders resident in Hengqin – also part of Zhuhai city, though with special economic status – can apply for a multiple-entry visa to travel to Macau. There were 25,933 inbound trips involving this method during January.
As a result, the 137,631 January aggregate of Zhuhai-originating visitors taking advantage of the easing measures, accounted for 8.6 percent of the mainlanders visiting Macau with IVS visas that month.
In January, Macau received 241,131 visitors from international markets, up 21.0 percent year-on-year. The top three sources out of the international markets were South Korea (65,659 visitors); the Philippines (48,499 visitors) and Indonesia (21,579 visitors).
