February visitors recovers to 93% pre-pandemic levels amid CNY

Visitor arrivals soared by 106.7% year-on-year to 3,293,564 in February, recovering to 92.9% of the level recorded in the same month of 2019, according to data from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

The increase in the number of arrivals occurred amid the Chinese New Year holidays when the city wrapped up the 10-day long holiday with 1.5 million people. Last year, these holidays fell in the last week of January.

The figure represents a rise of 15.1% month-on-month. Same-day visitors (1,867,660) and overnight visitors (1,425,904) leapt by 148.9% and 69.1% year-on-year respectively.

Also, international visitors totalled 176,192 in February, back to 71.6% of the figure in the corresponding month of 2019.

Macau has a budget of MOP235 million to attract more visitors from outside Greater China in a bid reduce the city’s economic dependence on the mainland Chinese gaming market.

Regarding the Southeast Asian markets, the numbers of visitors from the Philippines (39,837) and Indonesia (12,471) exceeded February 2019 levels, rising by 26.2% and 3.2% respectively.

Numbers of visitors from Malaysia (12,265) and Thailand (8,973) returned to 91.7% and 92.9% of the corresponding levels in February 2019.

In relation to the Northeast Asian markets, numbers of visitors from Korea (41,844) and Japan (11,442) recovered to 48.6% and 52.6% of the respective levels recorded in the same month of 2019. In relation to long-haul markets, visitors from the USA (9,903) rebounded to 70.0% of the February 2019 level.

The government has held roadshows in different regions outside the mainland to promote the SAR’s tourism offerings.

Meanwhile, visitors from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan in February rebounded to 95.7%, 92.5% and 71.9% of the corresponding levels in the same month of 2019.

In the first two months of 2024, the number of visitor arrivals expanded by 105.8% year-on-year to 6.16 million