Korean visitors drive international growth as hotel occupancy hits 89% in H1

The average occupancy rate of guest rooms in hotel establishments reached 89.1% in the first six months of 2025, a 5.1-percentage-point increase from the same period last year, according to the latest figures released by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

This rebound comes despite a 2.3% decline in inbound package tour visitors, who totaled 963,000 during the period.

As of June 30, Macau had 147 hotels open to the public, an increase of four from the previous year, although the total number of available guest rooms fell by 3.8% to approximately 45,000.

Five-star hotels led the market with an average occupancy rate of 92.5%, up 6.6 percentage points, while four-star and three-star hotels reached 83.1% and 85.4% occupancy, respectively – both posting year-on-year increases.

Hotel guest volumes declined overall by 1.0% to 7,202,000 during the first half of the year, and the average length of stay for guests remained steady at 1.7 nights.

Guests from the Chinese mainland rose 0.8% to 5,349,000, while international guest numbers surged 8.6% to 589,000. Growth was particularly strong from the Republic of Korea (169,000 guests, up 13.3%), Japan (48,000, up 16.1%), Malaysia (44,000, up 7.3%), and India (41,000, up 5.2%).

In contrast, arrivals from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region fell by 8.5% to 879,000.

International package tour visitors increased by 12.2% year-on-year to 117,000, also led by arrivals from the Republic of Korea, which jumped nearly 20% to 51,000.

Meanwhile, package tourists from the mainland declined by 6.0% to 813,000, reflecting shifting travel preferences. The DSEC indicated that this drop was mainly due to more visitors from Guangdong Province traveling under the Individual Visit Scheme, with individual visas.

Outbound travel services purchased by local residents through agencies grew 3.9% to 267,000, with the majority visiting the Chinese mainland.