Arrivals on last day of holidays fall to 19,000

Macau’s tourism arrivals have continued to decline on the last day of the May Golden Week holidays, recording a total of only 19,188 visitors as of 9 p.m. yesterday.

Provisional data from the Public Security Police shows a total of 135,795 arrivals from April 30 to May 4.

Following the 41,544 arrivals recorded on April 30 – the highest daily number of arrivals so far this year – the average number of arrivals for the holiday period now stands at about 27,160

Prior to the holiday, the tourism bureau released an estimate for the average tourist arrivals during the holiday period of about 30,000 per day. Following the boost of arrivals on the first day of the Golden week, the expectation was lifted to 35,000.

However, as the latest outbreak has affected two thirds of provincial-level regions in China, people have mostly chosen to stay at home.

During the five-day holiday starting from Saturday, citizens were expected to follow local policies on restrictions, reducing outings to avoid infection of the more contagious Omicron variants.

Amid the new Omicron clusters, on Saturday the Chinese capital city announced more intensive restrictive measures against Covid-19 to reduce the spread.

According to the Ministry of Transport, China is expected to see notable drops in tourist traffic for the holiday with the measures to contain Covid-19.