Macau sets highest visitor count since COVID hit

The city logged in nearly 140,000 visitors last Saturday; hotel occupancy rate for 1H23 jumps to almost pre-pandemic levels; average daily visitors recover in part.

Original story by Viviana Chan for Asia Gaming Brief with insights from the ACN Newsdesk

According to the Macau Tourism Office, the total number of inbound visitors from January to July this year was approximately 14.42 million, averaging 68,000 per day, a recovery to 63 percent of 2019 levels.

The average hotel occupancy rate from January to July jumped to 83 percent, only 7.8 percentage points lower than the 90.8 percent recorded in the same period of 2019. Between August 4th and 10th, the average hotel occupancy rate exceeded 94 percent.

Macau’s tourist numbers in July reached 80 percent of pre-pandemic levels, with mainland Chinese and Hong Kong visitors leading the increase.

The Deputy Director of Macau’s tourism bureau, Cheng Wai Tong, informed the media that the government expects higher visitor arrivals in August. He believes that the July figures mark a good start and anticipates that more entertainment options in the second half of the year will bolster the tourism market.

Concerning overseas markets, in January of this year, the average daily number of international visitors recovered to only 10.1 percent compared to the same period in 2019.

The average daily number of international visitors improved to 17.9 percent in February, 21.1 percent in March, 35 percent in both April and May and 43.2 percent in June.

According to the latest provisional figures, the average daily number of international visitors reached 4,201, compared with the average daily number of 7,393 in July 2019, representing a recovery rate of 56.8 percent.

Earlier this year, Macau officials have forecasted that arrivals in the city may balloon to 11.6M and that a shortage of manpower could pose a problem.

With the city earning a GGR worth USD 2.06B last month, the highest in 42 months, Macau is also planning to kick into high gear its wider tourism plan, with talks on including a 144-hour visa-free travel for the surrounding Guangdong province.

Read the original article as it appeared on the Asia Gaming Brief website at https://agbrief.com/news/macau/15/08/2023/macau-sets-record-with-highest-daily-visitor-arrivals-nearly-140000-on-saturday/