The number of visitor arrivals to Macau in the first nine months of 2024 reached just above 25.9 million, up 30.1 percent from the prior-year period, according to data published on Wednesday by the city’s Statistics and Census Service. The figure represents 85.8 percent of 2019’s levels, before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
International visitor arrivals in the nine months to September 30 rose by 95.1 percent year-on-year, to nearly 1.68 million, equivalent to 70.7 percent of the corresponding period in 2019. The figure represented 6.5 percent of aggregate arrivals in the January to September period.
The Philippines (345,537), South Korea (341,497) and Indonesia (127,861) were Macau’s top-three source markets for international tourists in the first nine months of 2024, according to the statistics bureau. There were significant increases in the number of visitors from Malaysia, India and Japan, albeit from a low base, showed the data.
Regarding long-haul markets, visitors from the United States increased by 83.2 percent year-on-year, to 103,379 in the January to September period.
The number of mainland visitors in the nine months to September 30 rose by 36.3 percent year-on-year to just below 18.22 million, accounting for 70.3 percent of the overall tally.
About 5.40 million visitors originated from Hong Kong in the reporting period, representing 20.8 percent of the aggregate figure, while visitors from Taiwan accounted for 2.4 percent, at 623,880.
Visitor arrivals to Macau were just under 2.53 million in September, up 9.9 percent year-on-year, showed the data.
The number of international visitors rose by 37.6 percent year-on-year to 173,614 in September, accounting for 92.7 percent of 2019’s levels, said the statistics bureau.
The Macau government has a stated policy aim of encouraging its casino concessionaires to draw more of their customers from markets beyond China.
As part of the Macau government’s tender process for new 10-year gaming concessions, bidders were asked to create plans and pledge investment on a number of issues, including bringing in more customers from overseas.
Historically, Macau has been overwhelmingly a Chinese-tourist market, with mainland China and Hong Kong accounting for 89.6 percent of Macau’s 39.4-million visitor arrivals in 2019, according to Macau government data.
The director of the Macao Government Tourism Office, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, said previously that while the government did not have a long-term goal regarding the mix between international visitors and those coming from Greater China. But she stated that an immediate target was to increase the market share of international arrivals to around 10 percent of the overall visitor volume.
