Macau could set a new post-Covid visitor-volume record for the upcoming May holiday season encompassing Labour Day on May 1, implies a travel-industry representative in comments to GGRAsia.
Macau and Hong Kong might be preferred by mainland China consumers as short-haul destinations, following a recent surge in jet fuel costs and airline surcharges for trips to more distant places, amid war in Iran, said Andy Wu Keng Kuong, president of the Travel Industry Council of Macau.
Mr Wu thinks the city could receive at least 170,000 daily arrivals during this year’s Labour Day holidays, which for mainland residents run for five days, from May 1 to May 5 inclusive, per the State Council.
“We may see 170,000 visitor arrivals per day – or even a volume above that level – for the Labour Day holiday,” season said the travel industry leader. Even the lower level would imply at least 850,000 arrivals for the May holidays this time.
Macau had received an aggregate of 850,034 visitors during the five-day Labour Day holiday period in 2025, marking the best performance for that season since 2019, the immediate trading year before Covid-19 hit.
During the Labour Day vacation season in 2019 – a four-day period on the mainland that year – Macau had received 636,644 visitor arrivals in aggregate – i.e., 159,161 per day on average – according to past data from Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO).
In a just-concluded holiday season this year, Macau had an average of 133,184 visitors per day. That was from April 3 to April 7, a period encompassing Easter – a holiday period in Macau’s second-largest market Hong Kong – and the Ching Ming Festival, a holiday China-wide, and specifically a three-day break on the mainland.
