Macau nearing full occupancy; City now surpasses Hong Kong as most visited travel destination by Chinese travelers

132 hotel establishments (with 17 new this year) are now at an average occupancy rate of 89%; removal of last COVID-related restrictions have led to peak travel visits in the city; guest stay length also increases.

Original story by Inside Asian Gaming

The total number of available guest rooms in Macau grew by 37.3 percent year-on-year to 43,000, with the average occupancy rate growing to 89 percent, recent data published by SAR authorities show.

Overall, by July of this year, there were 132 hotel establishments open to the public, an increase of 17 year-on-year.

In the first seven months of 2023, the average occupancy rate of guest rooms of hotel establishments went up by 41.8 percentage points year-on-year to 79.6 percent.

Between January and July, the number of visitors arriving on package tours reached 474,000, as visitation in the city continued to improve following the removal of Covid-19 pandemic-related restrictions.

The number of guests in hotel establishments in July leaped by 335.0 year-on-year to more than 1,27 million, divided by guests from mainland China (946,000), Hong Kong (200,000) and Taiwan (27,000).

Meanwhile, the average length of stay of guests decreased by 0.7 night year-on-year to 1.6 nights.

Recently, Macau surpassed Hong Kong to become the most popular travel destination among Chinese travelers in 2023, according to data released by the China Tourism Academy.

This article originally appeared in Asia Gaming Brief