Macau’s tourism and gaming sectors showed notable resilience during the recent Golden Week holiday despite disruptions from Typhoon Matmo, with visitor numbers surpassing those recorded in both 2024 and the pre-pandemic year of 2019, according to a report by CreditSights analysts.
Analysts Nicholas Chen and David Bussey, CFA, from CreditSights’ East Asia Corporates team said the strong Golden Week visitation data underlines the sustained recovery of Macau’s leisure and gaming markets and should help underpin gross gaming revenue (GGR) performance in October.
They reaffirmed confidence in the city’s 2025 full-year GGR target of MOP228 billion ($28.3 billion), describing it as ‘attainable’ amid steady mass-market demand and improving consumer sentiment in mainland China.
Macau’s GGR in September rose 6 percent year-on-year to MOP 18.3 billion ($2.27 billion). While the gain was slower than the 17 percent average annual growth recorded between June and August, and below market expectations of a 9 percent rise. CreditSights said the softer performance reflected seasonal trends and the adverse weather conditions brought by Typhoon Matmo.
‘Despite the temporary impact of the typhoon, visitation trends remain solid and should provide a buffer for October GGR,’ the analysts said. ‘The Golden Week data suggest a sustained recovery in Macau’s tourism base and point to continued resilience in the mass-market segment, which remains the key driver of revenue growth.’
During the eight-day Golden Week holiday from October 1st to 8th — which was extended by one day due to the Mid-Autumn Festival — Macau welcomed around 1.14 million visitors, a 17 percent year-on-year increase.
Average daily arrivals reached about 143,000, up 2 percent from the previous year, with October 4 marking the busiest day at 191,000 entries.
For the traditional seven-day comparison period, total visitors reached 1.06 million, 7 percent higher year-on-year and 8 percent above 2019 levels. Mainland Chinese tourists accounted for roughly 83 percent of total arrivals, or 879,700 visitors, representing an 8 percent increase from last year and 11 percent above 2019 figures.
Chen and Bussey said that the strong recovery in visitor arrivals underscores the continued normalization of cross-border travel and the strength of Macau’s non-VIP tourism segment.
‘We expect the solid fundamentals in visitation and consumer activity to sustain momentum into year-end, keeping the full-year GGR target within reach’, they added.
