The Director of Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes told the media on the sidelines of an event earlier that the city’s hotels had fared well during the Christmas holiday, with some even achieving an occupancy rate of 80%.
“Since most visitors opted to stay overnight in Macau [during Christmas] we can see some hotels performed well in terms of occupancy rate,” Fernandes said.
She ascribed the uptick in the hotel occupancy rate partly to the government’s ongoing promotional efforts targetting mainland visitors. They included hotel discounts, airfare roll-backs and cash vouchers.
She stressed that authorities will carry on with the promotion strategy to entice more mainlaind holidaymakers to travel to Macau.
Chairman of Travel Industry Council Andy Wu said Macau’s overall hotel occupancy rate stood at 40% to 50% during the Christmas holiday, as stated in a report published by Bastille Post.
The occupancy rate for hotels on the Cotai Strip even reached 80%, a noticeable improvement compared to Golden Week in October, Wu said.
Wu added that mainland visitors were attracted by the government’s tourism promotions and more inclined to stay overnight during the festive period. But he indicated that if the recent outbreaks of Covid-19 cases reported in some parts of mainland China were not kept in check, it might prevent visitors from travelling to Macau.
Fernandes said she expected the number of daily visitor arrivals in Macau to stay at around 24,000 during the Christmas period. On Christmas Day, Macau registered a total 27,800 visitor arrivals
On December 24 and 25, Macau registered a total of around 160,000 daily arrivals, according to the latest data provided by the Public Security Police Force (PSP). Among all arrivals, 135,000 entered Macau from the Border Gate at Portas do Cerco, while another 12,000 came through Hengqin Port.
Total passenger traffic was recorded at 310,000 that same day, an aggregate of 160,000 inbound passengers and 150,000 outbound passengers. Meanwhile, some 29,300 people departed the SAR in the same period.
According to the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), Macau recorded a total of 636,351 visitor arrivals in November, up 9.3% month-to-month, yet down 78.1% year-on-year.
Overnight visitors and same-day visitors contributed roughly the same share in November, totaling 323,794 and 312,557 respectively. Meanwhile, the average length of stay among visitors that month increased by 0.5 days to 1.7 days year-on-year.
In terms of the source of visitors, the number of mainland visitors fell by 71.0% year-on-year to 588,511, with those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme adding up to 197,311. Visitors from the nine Pearl River Delta cities in the Greater Bay Area totalled 327,413, of whom 159,079 (48.6%) came from Zhuhai. Meanwhile, there were 43,178 visitors from Hong Kong and 4,589 from Taiwan. Staff Reporter
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