Jan 26, 2024 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  
Shanghai rose in 2023 to second spot behind Guangdong province, in the top-10 list of Macau’s source markets for mainland China tourists, according to GGRAsia’s review of data from Macau’s Statistics and Census Service.
In 2023, the mainland as a whole, supplied 67.5 percent, or just under 19.05 million, of Macau’s 2023 visitor tally of slightly over 28.21 million. In the pre-pandemic trading year of 2019, the mainland market overall sent just above 27.92 million, or 70.9 percent, of Macau’s total of nearly 39.41 million visitors.
Guangdong, the mainland province next door to Macau, continued its predominant role as a mainland source market for Macau in 2023, with just under 10.28 million, or 53.9 percent, of the mainland’s nearly 19.05 million.
In 2019, Guangdong had supplied just under 12.82 million, or 45.9 percent, of the mainland’s circa 27.92-million cohort.
The second-largest component to Macau’s visitor market in both years was Hong Kong, with other markets trailing well behind.
Market research on the Las Vegas, Nevada, casino hub in the United States, indicates proximity to market as a general indicator of consumer willingness to visit that city, and the frequency of such visits.
Proximity to market seems to be a factor in the consistent top ranking of Guangdong in Macau’s table of mainland visitors, and Hong Kong as the main source market after that.
Nonetheless, investment analysts have cited other possible factors in determining ranking of Chinese source markets for Macau, including mainland exit-visa policy for individual Chinese provinces; ease of access to the country’s high-speed rail network; and pace of post-pandemic recovery in domestic air services.
In last year’s mainland-visitor ranking for the Macau tourism trade, Shanghai rose from its eighth spot in the pre-pandemic trading year of 2019. In real terms however, Shanghai supplied in 2023 only 8.6 percent more tourists to the Macau market, i.e., 784,084, than the 721,783 it contributed in 2019.
Jiangsu was in third place for supplying Macau with mainland visitors in 2023, up from seventh in 2019. However, the 698,606 tourists it dispatched to Macau was actually 12.1 percent fewer than the 782,876 it contributed in 2019.
Fourth for 2023 was Zhejiang, with 672,447, versus its sixth spot in 2019, when it actually supplied 17.3 percent more, namely 788,762.
At number five last year was Fujian, providing 532,033 visitors, compared to its third-place ranking in 2019, when it supplied 930,098. The difference was a decline of 42.8 percent in 2023, relative to the pre-pandemic year.
Hunan, which had been ranked second in 2019, sending just over 1.12 million visitors, fell to sixth position last year, a 54.1 percent decline, to 515,801.
In seventh position in 2023 was Hubei, providing 510,676. That was down 44.7 percent on the 923,470 in 2019, when it ranked fourth among Macau’s mainland source markets.
For 2023, Guangxi ranked eighth, with 496,725, a slip from fifth place in 2019, when it supplied 857,665 tourists. Percentage-wise, the decline was 42.1 percent.
The ninth-biggest mainland-tourist source market for Macau last year was Sichuan, with 415,734. It had the same ranking as in 2019, when it actually supplied 551,978 tourists, meaning a decline last year of 24.7 percent relative to pre-pandemic performance.
Beijing, which didn’t even make the top 10 in 2019, took 10th spot last year, supplying 391,669 visitors, compared to 390,491 visitors in 2019, when it was ranked 12th.
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