August visitors down 19% y-o-y

Visitor arrivals recorded a staggering increase in August, totaling 331,397, attributable to the easing of cross-border measures between Zhuhai and Macau in early August.

Although the increase was about 3,295.8%, the figure came from a low baseline as July visitor arrivals drastically dropped by 98.8% to 9,759 due to the city’s partial lockdown in response to its largest outbreak since mid-June.

The figure represented a 19% drop year-on-year, data from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) shows.

Overnight visitors (177,640) increased 17.5% year-on-year, whereas same-day visitors (153,757) declined 40.4%. 

Having been affected by the previous wave of the pandemic, some visitors extended their stays until August, leading the average length of stays of overnight visitors to rise by 1.5 days year-on-year to 5.4 days.

As regards the source of visitors, the number of visitors from mainland China fell 21.5% year-on-year to 290,138, with 124,255 visitors traveling under the Individual Visit Scheme 

In the first eight months of this year, the number of visitor arrivals fell 25.8% year-on-year to 3,806,263. Same-day visitors (2,341,772) and overnight visitors (1,464,491) fell 6.5% and 44.2% respectively.

The validity period of nucleic acid test (NAT) results taken for the purpose of crossing the border, changed from 24 hours to 48 hours as of yesterday, Zhuhai health authorities announced, a measure that will likely boost tourism arrivals in the upcoming Golden Week holidays.

Given the recent increase in tourism, Macau might see an average of 30,000 tourists per day during the October 1 holidays, according to tourism associations.

Dubbed the Golden Week, the seven-day holiday is a major event in mainland China, with the other being the May 1 holiday, which also lasts seven days. LV