Visitor arrivals to Macau in November numbered 2.59 million, flat when compared to the prior-year period, data from the city’s Statistics and Census Service showed on Wednesday.
The official figures show that the number of overnight visitors in November rose by 10.4 percent year-on-year, to 1.37 million. The number of same-day visitors however declined by 9.7 percent year-on-year, to 1.21 million.
The tally of visitors from mainland China decreased by 1.2 percent year-on-year to 1.71 million in November; among which those travelling under China’s Individual Visit Scheme increased by 2.1 percent to 791,007.
The number of visitors from Hong Kong and Taiwan dropped by 1.4 percent in both cases, while visitors from South Korea and Japan were up by 34.6 percent and 25.4 percent respectively, said the statistics bureau.
Total visitor arrivals in the first 11 months of 2016 edged up by 0.2 percent year-on-year, to 28.14 million tourists. The average length of stay of visitors went up by 0.1 day to 1.2 days, according to the official data.
The number of overnight visitors in the first 11 months of 2016 rose by 9.1 percent to approximately 14.15 million, but the total of same-day visitors in the same period dropped by 7.4 percent, to about 13.98 million.
Brokerage Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd had said in previous commentary that the growth trend in overnight visitors is positive for Macau’s casino industry, as this type of tourists “were considered more valuable to Macau compared with day trippers”.
The majority of gamblers in Macau’s casinos are tourists. But several investment analysts have said that headline visitor numbers historically are not directly correlated to overall gaming demand, as gross gaming revenue in the Macau market has been typically skewed to high-end play.
