Macau is still working on bringing more international visitors to improve the pace of its recovery. In the first quarter of the year, the city received 585,000 international visitors out of a total of 8.9 million visitor arrivals. This means international visitors accounted for only about 6.6 percent of the total visitors.
According to the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), the figure for international visitor arrivals represents an average daily volume of about 6,400 (6,424). This was more than three times higher compared to the first quarter of 2023 but only recovered to 67.5 percent of 1Q19 levels.
Among the top ten visitor markets for Macau from January to March 2024, international visitor arrivals were mainly from Southeast Asian markets, including the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, and India, as well as Korea and Japan in Northeast Asia, and the United States and Canada as long-haul markets.
Mainland China continues to top the inbound source market in Macau, with the quarter totaling 6.3 million visitors. Over 1.8 million visitors from Hong Kong and 182,000 visitors from Taiwan visited Macau in the first three months of the year.
In comparison with 2019, Macau’s total visitor arrivals recovered to about 84.8 percent according to the provisional figures from the Public Security Police Force.
IVS
MGTO also notes that the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) was put into force on March 6th, 2024, for Xi’an and Qingdao residents traveling to Hong Kong and Macau.
Macau recorded 47,000 and 24,000 visitor arrivals from Xi’an and Qingdao between January and March 2024, a rise of 6.4 percent and 44.5 percent compared with 1Q19, as well as a 2.1-fold and 1.6-fold rise from the first quarter of 2023.
Hotel occupancy rate reaches 85 percent
Macau had a total supply of 46,481 hotel rooms up to the end of February. The average occupancy rate of local hotels reached 85.8 percent in January and February.
The daily average of hotel overnight guests exceeded 42,000 (42,505), which exceeded the corresponding figure in the first two months of 2019 with an increase of 8.8 percent.
