GGRAsia – MGTO ups Golden Week visitor forecast to 100k daily arrivals

MGTO ups Golden Week visitor forecast to 100k daily arrivals

Sep 15, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

The Macau tourism authority has increased by more than 10 percent its daily visitor arrival forecast for the October Golden Week. The body now expects the city to welcome a daily average of “over 100,000” visitor arrivals during the period.

The latest estimate was provided by Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) deputy director Ricky Hoi Io Meng in remarks to local media, on the sidelines of a Friday event.

China’s State Council has designated September 29 to October 6 inclusive this year as the holiday period popularly known as October Golden Week. This year, the period encompasses the lunar-calendar based Mid-Autumn Festival, falling on September 29, and China’s National Day on October 1.

MGTO director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes had said on September 10 that the tourism authority expected the city to welcome a daily average of “80,000 to 90,000” visitors during the October Golden Week.

In his Friday comments, Mr Hoi said the daily average number of visitor arrivals to Macau had recently trended at around “70,000”. He stated that inbound tourism volumes had been negatively impacted by “unstable weather conditions”. Still. Macau had recorded “over 100,000” visitor arrivals on September 9, the official added.

Typhoon Saola led Macau’s weather bureau to raise its storm signal to Number 10 – the highest warning signal for tropical storms – on September 2. The bad weather led to the temporary closure of the city’s gaming venues for about nine hours as a precautionary measure, and also disrupted transportation to and from Macau.

A few days later, on September 7 and 8, parts of southern China were hit by a record-breaking rainstorm. The heavy rainfall flooded several areas in Hong Kong. Flooding and associated disruptions were also reported in cities in Guangdong province, including Shenzhen, Dongguan, Guangzhou, and Zhuhai, the latter just next door to Macau.

Macau saw a daily average of “more than 100,000″ visitor arrivals in the summer month of August, according to information previously disclosed by Ms Senna Fernandes.

During the October Golden Week period of 2019 – the last trading period before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic – the city welcomed a daily average of more than 140,000 visitor arrivals. A total of 81.1 percent of the tourist arrivals were from mainland China, according to official data.