Macau tops annual visitor milestone 12 days early as mainland arrivals surge

[Photo; Yuki Lei]

Macau tourism authorities said earlier this year that arrivals were expected to reach about 41 million, and on Saturday the Public Security Police Force (PSP) reported inbound visitors had topped 10 million – a milestone reached 12 days earlier than last year, with mainland Chinese visitors accounting for the largest share.

The Public Security Police announced on Saturday that cumulative inbound visitors had topped 10 million as of 11 a.m., hitting the milestone 12 days earlier than in 2025 and recording a daily average of 126,000 visitors, up 14.2% year over year.

Official data from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) show the trend is driven by shortstay travel: sameday visitors in January and February rose 22% year over year to 4.931 million, accounting for more than 63% of total arrivals, highlighting a robust postpandemic rebound in visitor traffic to Macau.

“There has been significant growth in sameday visitors, which has increased the share of mainland tourists,” Andy Wu, president of the Travel Industry Council of Macau, told reporters, cautioning that authorities must consider how to convert higher visitor numbers into sustained revenue. He added that “the growth in independent travelers is an inevitable trend.”

He proposed introducing lotterystyle vouchers to spur spending in neighborhood shops. “Building on existing consumer rewards for residents, we should extend benefits to tourists, or launch limitedtime lottery tickets and coupons on payment platforms commonly used by mainland visitors. We could also offer more voucher promotions for overnight guests to encourage longer stays and greater spending in local neighborhoods,” he told the Chinese-language Macao Daily News, as published Sunday.

In another interview with public broadcaster TDM, Wu forecast that passenger volume would rise about 10% this year to roughly 44 million trips but urged Macau to bolster tourism infrastructure – particularly public transport – and expand bus capacity, noting that current bus services “have not yet reached saturation.”

To boost Macau’s appeal under its “Tourism+” initiative, Wu recommended enhancing the tourism component of local football programs by inviting renowned overseas teams for exhibition matches.

A fellow industry representative agreed, saying sustained visitor growth could spur a concert economy that would help Macau become a “city of performing arts,” diversify tourism away from gaming, and lift the city’s overall attractiveness and repeat-visit rate – potentially creating a new cultural-tourism model of “traveling to a city for a single concert.”

The police said mainland Chinese visitors made up about 75% of inbound arrivals, Hong Kong visitors 15%, Taiwan 2.5% and foreign visitors 6.6%.

Wu attributed the surge to the national easing of individual-travel rules – notably Zhuhai’s “one trip per week” and Hengqin’s “one visa for multiple trips” policies introduced – and to improved Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area connectivity, which has boosted same-day travel from Zhuhai and Hengqin.

According to the PSP and Wu, Gongbei remains the busiest entry point, handling more than 44% of crossings, followed by the Macau side of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge at nearly 20% and Hengqin Port at 16%; despite the surge in same-day visitors arriving mainly through these ports, hotel occupancy has held steady at about 90%, showing that the rise in day-trippers has not dented demand for overnight stays.