Golden Week visitors up 8.8% over first two days

Visitors to Macau have reportedly risen as much as 8.8% year-on-year over the first two days of Golden Week, according to data released yesterday by the Public Security Police Force, which oversees immigration matters.

The number of visitors during the first two days stood at just over 297,000, led by a 9.6% surge in visitors from the mainland to 257,600, many of whom will not work during Golden Week. This year’s Golden Week extends from October 1 to 7, running from National Day to the Chung Yeung Festival.

Meanwhile, on October 1 and 2, Macau registered more than 1.087 million entries and exits, an increase of 3% compared to the previous year.

As in previous years, the Gongbei Border Gate remained the most popular port of entry, with more than 180,600 visitors arrivals, followed by the Cotai Checkpoint with 37,600 entries.

The police authority said in a statement that, as the rise was in line with government expectations, it was able to accommodate the passenger flow over the first two days without crowd control measures. However, the authority also said that Macau’s ports of entry will remain congested in the next few days.

Crowd control measures were put into force in downtown Macau yesterday to control the large number of tourists. Some tourists were also detoured from the popular attraction of St. Paul’s Cathedral, which had become too crowded.

The police also said that the local taxi sector has been warned that drivers must comply with the law and cannot refuse to carry passengers or overcharge them. During the first two days of October, five taxi drivers were stopped for illegalities, though no cases of overcharging or refusing to carry passengers were detected. DB