International visitors leaped by 66% y-o-y in 2024

Official statistics from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) noted that last year, there were 2,423,093 international visitors to Macau.

As the Times previously reported, the vast majority of these visitors arrived from Southeast Asian markets, led by those from the Philippines (493,399), Indonesia (183,062), and Malaysia (181,941). Compared to the previous year, these market sources grew by 57.1%, 28.1%, and 82.2%, respectively.

Visitors from Thailand (134,658) and Singapore (119,201) also increased significantly, rising by 31.8% and 29.8%, respectively.

In other Asian markets, visitors from India (103,817) grew by 76.5% year over year, and those from the Republic of Korea (492,184) and Japan (126,424) increased by 140.6% and 68.2%, respectively.

The highlight of the long-haul markets was the USA, which contributed 147,941 visitors last year, an increase of 57.7% compared to 2023.

As previously reported, the Macao Government Tourism Office had set the goal of attracting at least 2 million international visitors in 2024, a target that was surpassed by 21.2%.

Also growing was the number of visitors from mainland China, which increased by 28.6% year-over-year to 24,491,424. Of these, those traveling under the Individual Visit Scheme (12,281,055) grew by 15.5%, while those traveling under the “tourist group multi-entry measure” totaled 17,078.

Visitors from the nine Greater Bay Area (GBA) cities increased by 28.8% to 11,985,383. Visitors from Taiwan (834,411) surged by 64.1% year-over-year.

Among the regular market sources of visitors to Macau, only those from the neighboring region of Hong Kong registered a downturn. In 2024, Hong Kong visitors to Macau totaled 7,179,722, decreasing slightly by 0.2%.

Analyzed by checkpoint, the number of visitor arrivals by land (27,769,490) represented 79.5% of the total, marking a year-over-year increase of 24.1%, while those arriving by sea (4,094,585) accounted for an 11.7% share and grew by 10.7%. Those arriving by air totaled 3,064,575, representing 8.8% of the total, and recorded the most significant year-over-year increase, growing by 43.9%.

Despite the positive results in total numbers and year-over-year growth, visitors’ average length of stay was 1.2 days, shortening by 0.1 days year-over-year in 2024. The average length of stay for overnight visitors remained unchanged at 2.3 days.

Same-day visitors represented 54.1%, while overnight visitors accounted for 45.9%. This further highlights an imbalance between the two types: Same-day visitors grew by 35%, while overnight visitors grew less (12.8%) year-over-year.