April tourist arrivals lowest level in over a decade

The tightening of quarantine measures for arrivals in Macau starting in late March 2020 has caused the number of visitor arrivals in April to tumble 99.7% year-on-year to just 11,041.
The figure released by the Statistics and Census Service also represented a month-to-month decline of 94.8%, which is the largest such decline so far this year, as countries shut their borders to deter the spread of Covid-19.
The decline also represents the lowest level of arrivals in over a decade, as cited in data issued by the Macao Government Tourism Office.
Both overnight visitors (6,383) and same-day visitors (4,658) showed year-on-year decreases of over 99%.
In terms of the source of visitors, the number of mainland visitors dropped by 99.6% year-on-year to 10,500 (95.1% of total), with those from the nine Pearl River Delta cities in the Greater Bay Area (4,410) diving by 99.4%.
Until now, only mainland visitors who already hold Individual Visit Scheme visas can enter Macau. The central government has not resumed issuing these visas and group visas, which have also been halted.
Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng previously announced that he intended to request that the central government extend its issuance of visa permits for mainlanders from other Chinese cities to travel to Macau.
Meanwhile, there were only 328 visitors from Hong Kong and 210 from Taiwan.
All visitors to Macau, except those coming from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China, are still banned from entering the city.
Visitors are obliged to undergo a 14-day quarantine at a government-designated hotel.
There is still no date on when the ban will be lifted.
Analyzed by checkpoint, visitors in April mainly came to Macau by land. Visitor arrivals by air were a mere 61 in total.
Since March 25, no layovers have been allowed in Macau. This means nobody is allowed to enter Macau with a passport and a flight ticket to a third country.
In the first four months of 2020, there were 3.23 million visitor arrivals in total, a drop of 76.6% year-on-year. Same-day visitors (1.7 million) and overnight visitors (1.52 million) fell by 77.1% and 76% respectively.
Analyzed by source market, visitors from mainland China (2.3 million), Hong Kong (650,196) and Taiwan (81,150) declined by more than 70%.
Those coming from the United States (13,469), Australia (7,904) and Canada (6,175) also declined.
The Hong Kong government has previously announced that it is in talks with Macau and mainland authorities about lifting some of the travel restrictions in place in the three regions.