Almost 1 million Christmas visitors in just seven days

Tourist arrivals to Macau numbered 984,995 in the seven days from December 20 to 26, indicating an end-month improvement from what had been an otherwise slow month influenced by President Xi Jinping’s visit.

The data provided by the Public Security Police Force showed that the number of arrivals was about 10% higher than in the equivalent period last year. On Christmas Day alone, there were nearly 324,000 visitor arrivals.

The number of visitors during the Christmas period was almost exactly the same as that recorded during the 2019 Golden Week in October, traditionally one of the busiest periods of the year.

Meanwhile, visitor arrivals in November totaled 2.9 million, down by 10.9% year-on-year, and bringing the total number since the beginning of the year to over 36 million. The total number of visitors in the first 11 months represents a 12.7% growth in year-on-year terms. 

Last month, same-day visitors (1.5 million) and overnight visitors (1.4 million) dropped by 10.5% and 11.4% respectively year-on-year.  

The decrease was mainly due to the plunge in visitors coming from mainland China (2 million), Korea (43,000) and Hong Kong (571,000), which dropped 11.1%, 36.5%, and 3.4% respectively. 

Visitors from China travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme fell by 14.9% to 898,000. Visitors from the nine Pearl River Delta cities in the Greater Bay Area increased by 23.7% year-on-year to 943,000, while those from Zhuhai (292,000) and Guangzhou (184,000) surged by 37.4% and 26.2% respectively.

Analyzed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by land decreased by 5.9% year-on-year to 2.1 million in November, with those arriving through the Border Gate (1.6 million) and via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (350,000) decreasing by 3.3% and 19.8% respectively. Visitor arrivals by sea declined by 39% year-on-year to 413,000, while those by air rose by 16.7% to 318,000. 

The findings of a study released earlier this month by the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) showed that the opening of the mega bridge in October 2018 has led to changes in the arrivals of visitors in Macau.

One of the study conclusions was that six out of every 10 visitors from Hong Kong said they were dropping ferry travel to Macau in favor of the land route made possible by the delta-spanning bridge. However, it was also noted that the primary appeal of the bridge was its novelty factor, otherwise refered to as visitors’ “curiosity”.

The November data shows that since January, same-day visitors (19.1 million) and overnight visitors (17.1 million) have increased by 23.8% and 2.4% respectively.  

MGTO had previously predicted that the SAR’s number of visitor arrivals this year would reach close to 40 million, citing the popularity of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. That year-end figure is not expected to be breached in 2019.

The tourism authority previously noted that various factors may prevent visitor growth in 2020 from breaching the 40-million mark. The China-U.S. trade war and social unrest in Hong Kong were among the cited factors.

MGTO director Helena de Senna Fernandes previously told the press that the trend of year-on-year growth in arrivals for the last two months of the year would likely be sustained. However, the tourism chief noted that the increases may not be as high as last year. 

Last December, visitor arrivals totaled nearly 3.6 million, registering a 16.9% increase year-on-year.