GGRAsia – Visitors stayed longer in Macau in 2020, says govt

Visitors stayed longer in Macau in 2020, says govt

Jan 20, 2021 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

The average length of stay of visitors to Macau went up by 0.2 of a day year-on-year to 1.4 days in full-year 2020, with that of overnight visitors (2.8 days) rising by 0.6 of a day, according to data released on Wednesday by Macau’s Statistics and Census Service. Nonetheless, the city saw a sharp decline in the aggregate number of visitor arrivals last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Macau saw an 85-percent year-on-year decline in its tourist arrivals for 2020, with the full-year inbound-tourist tally at nearly 5.90 million, according to the statistics bureau. The data comes against the background disruption to travel and tourism around the world, amid the pandemic.

The number of overnight visitors for full-year 2020 stood at 2.82 million, down 84.9 percent from a year earlier. Nearly half of those visitors had been recorded in January, before several measures to contain the spread of Covid-19 were introduced. The tally of overnight visitors accounted for 47.9 percent of the total number of visitor arrivals, showed the official data.

The Macau government’s spending-stimulus initiatives for mainland Chinese consumers, including discount offers aimed at tourists, for hotel stays and flights via some e-commerce platforms, have helped in boosting tourists’ stay, Secretary for Economy and Finance Lei Wai Nong had remarked so to press in several occasions.

In comments to local media earlier this month, the official stressed that the government would continue to work on the spending-stimulus measures, in order to encourage longer stay by travellers and to boost their consumption in Macau.

Mainland visitors are the only consumer group currently entitled – in most cases – to quarantine-free entry to Macau.

In 2020, Macau received about 4.75 million visitor arrivals from mainland China, an 83 percent decline compared to the previous year. Those travelling under Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) – which was paused in late January 2020 and only resumed nationwide by late September – reached nearly 1.87 million, down 85.7 percent from 2019.

Visitor arrivals from neighbouring Guangdong province reached 2.75 million in 2020, accounting for 57.8 percent of the overall number of mainland Chinese visitors. IVS travellers from Guangdong amounted to nearly 1.41 million, accounting for 75.4 percent of the aggregate number of IVS arrivals in the full year.