Going to the movies remains most popular activity

A total of 295,800 individuals have participated in cultural activities in Macau in the second quarter of 2017, resulting in a cultural activity participation rate at 54 percent, down by 0.9 percentage points year-on-year.

According to the Statistics and Census Service’s (DSEC) survey on Participation of Residents in Cultural Activities, which was aimed at ages 16 and above, the number of local residents participating in cultural activities totaled to 261,100, with a participation rate of 59 percent down slightly by 0.2 percentage points.

Analyzed by the type of cultural activity, going to the cinema remained the most popular activity for local residents, with 173,400 participants, up by 2.1 percent year-on-year.

With the government organizing a number of film screenings to promote Macau film culture, there has been a continuous increment in the number of local residents who had watched locally-produced films and videos, growing by 3.1 percent year-on-year to 36,200.

Local residents going to libraries increased by 13.2 percent year-on-year to 129,500; with the activity participation rate being 29.3 percent, up by 3 percentage points.

The survey showed that students had a participation rate of 79.4 percent compared to non-students which was at  24.4 percent.

In addition, local residents visiting museums or World Heritage sites rose slightly by 1.4 percent year-on-year to 115,400.

Of these local residents, 87,900 visited word heritage sites and 77,600 visited museums, up by 6.6 percent and 3.4 percent respectively year-on-year.

Meanwhile, there were 79,500 local residents attending performances, down by 12.2 percent year-
on-year.

The average attendance per participant rose by 0.3 to 2.6. Music/dance performances were more popular among local residents, with 57,500 participants (72.4 percent), while theatre performances had 49,600 participants (62.4 percent).

There were 34,900 local residents attending art exhibitions, down by 8.9 percent year-on-year; 99.6 percent of these residents also participated in other types of cultural activities.

The proportion of those who took part in four or more types of activities rose by 12 percentage points to 63.6 percent.