Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that in the first quarter of 2025 the number of visitors from the nine Pearl River Delta cities in the Greater Bay Area rose by 18.8 percent year-on-year to 3,582,016, driven by a 50.3 percent increase in visitors from Zhuhai.
The rise in visitor numbers is believed to have been supported by new visa policies implemented on January 1st this year.
The policies in question are the “one trip per week” scheme and the “multiple-entry visa.” Previously, before the introduction of the “one trip per week” visa for Zhuhai residents and the “multiple-entry visa” for Hengqin residents, these citizens were only permitted to visit Macau once every two months.
The new visa policies were announced last year as part of the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the Macau SAR and have been referred to as a “gift” from Beijing.
According to official statistical data, 97,957 visitors entered under the “multiple-entry” scheme and 28,671 entered under the “tourist group multi-entry visa.” The “tourist group multi-entry visa” was implemented on May 6th last year, aiming to facilitate tour groups to make multiple entries between Macau and Hengqin within a seven-day period. This arrangement is particularly beneficial for budget tour groups, allowing them to visit Macau or attend MICE activities while securing more economical accommodation in Hengqin.
In 1Q25, visitors from the Taiwan region (221,146) went up by 21.6 percent year-on-year, while those from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (1,753,042) decreased by 3.6 percent.
In general, visitor arrivals increased by 11.1 percent year-on-year to 9,862,665 in the first quarter of 2025.
Visitors from mainland China increased by 14.5 percent year-on-year to 7,206,035 in the first quarter, with those traveling under the Individual Visit Scheme (4,011,208) rising by 15.6 percent.
International visitors grew 16.9%
International visitors totalled 682,442 in the first quarter, up by 16.9 percent year-on-year. Regarding the Southeast Asian markets, visitors from the Philippines (126,559), Indonesia (53,643), Malaysia (47,094), and Singapore (26,356) rose by 10.4 percent, 36.5 percent, 18.2 percent, and 2.8 percent year-on-year respectively, while those from Thailand (35,073) decreased by 9.2 percent.
With respect to the South Asian markets, visitors from India (19,135) dropped by 3.4 percent year-on-year. For the Northeast Asian markets, visitors from the Republic of Korea (172,255) and Japan (44,663) grew by 33 percent and 23.6 percent respectively. As regards long-haul markets, visitors from the USA (36,629) went up by 9.7 percent year-on-year.
In March 2025, the number of visitor arrivals totaled 3,068,920, up by 12.8 percent year-on-year.
