Macau recorded an aggregate of 75,122 visitor arrivals on Sunday and Monday inclusive (January 8 and 9), according to data released by Macau’s Public Security Police.
The jump in visitor arrivals coincided with Macau’s decision to cancel with effect from January 8 most of its travel restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic, dropping all testing requirements for inbound travellers from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The authorities on the Chinese mainland also substantially eased from Sunday, travel restrictions with Hong Kong and Macau, with most Covid-19 controls scrapped.
The jump in visitor arrivals has also coincided with the resumption of a number of transport services between Macau and Hong Kong, and between Macau and cities in mainland China.
Figures from Macau’s Public Security Police showed that on Monday the city welcomed 35,479 visitors. About 19,000 of Monday’s visitors entered Macau via the Border Gate land crossing with neighbouring Zhuhai, Guangdong province.
Macau saw a total of 39,643 visitor arrivals on Sunday (January 8), with more than half the tally entering the city via the Border Gate.
The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) said in press release that Sunday’s visitor arrival tally had been the highest since a local outbreak of Covid-19 that started on June 2022, and which took more than a month for the authorities to bring under control. It was also a jump of 153.5 percent compared to the daily average number of visitor arrivals recorded in full-2022, stated the tourism bureau.
The organisation said that on Sunday a total of 5,630 visitors from Hong Kong had entered Macau. The figure was up by 298.6 percent compared to the daily average recorded in full-2022.
According to figures disclosed by MGTO, an aggregate of 143,926 visitor arrivals to Macau was recorded in the first seven days of January. That represented a daily average of 20,561 visitor arrivals, up 58.6 percent compared to the daily average recorded in the previous week, and a jump of 62.8 percent compared to the daily average for last month (12,630).
The Macau casino market might see an improvement during the coming Chinese New Year holiday period, thanks to end of Covid-19-related testing and travel restrictions, said last week brokerage JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd
Trip.com Group, one of China’s largest online travel service providers, issued on Monday a statement on booking trends for travel products covering the upcoming Chinese New Year period. It indicated Macau lead the list of most-booked outbound destinations for trips having mainland China as the departing point. The statement did not provide detailed figures.
