Visitors from outside Greater China made up only 4.2 percent of the total 14.4 million visitors that entered the Macau SAR between January and July, according to data published by the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO).
The Macau government has clearly stated intentions to expand the volume of visitors from outside Greater China, even including as part of the new 10-year gaming concessions that gaming operators should create plans and pledge investment on a number of issues, including bringing in more customers from overseas in exchange for tax reductions.
According to data published by the MGTO on the top 10 main sources of visitors to Macau, mainland visitors made up 65.6 percent of the total 14.4 million visitors reported in the first seven months of the year, followed by Hong Kong with 28.6 percent, and Taiwan with 1.6 percent.
The Philippines, Indonesia, and South Korea were the top three source countries outside the Greater China region, however, with the first only representing 1 percent of the total, and the remaining two countries each representing 0.5 percent of the total.
It is also important to note that, although the MGTO marks travelers from these countries as visitors, the Philippines and Indonesia are some of the largest source markets of non-resident workers in the SAR, therefore most of the included nationals in these statistics might be entering the city for employment purposes, not tourism.
Visitors from the US were the largest contingent from outside Asia, with some 40,064 Americans visiting the Macau SAR between January and July.
