Mar. 18 sees three-year high of single-day visitor arrival

Last Saturday, the city saw its highest count of tourist arrivals in three years at 96,011, the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) announced in a statement.

The first 22 days of March, meanwhile, achieved an average count of 65,000 per day, which was 13.4% more that the daily average in February.

In the first two months of the year, the city received over 2.99 million visitors. Breaking down the figure, 1.99 million came from mainland China, 880,000 from Hong Kong, 41,000 from Taiwan and the rest from other parts of the world.

The MGTO described this as “an implication of the international source market reviving in Macau.”

Speaking about hotel occupancy, the MGTO revealed that there was a 74% occupancy rate recorded in January and February, equating to a 27.9% year-over-year increase.

At an event held yesterday, Chan Weng Hong, director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Macao, revealed that the local airport now operates flights to 43 destinations, which is 60% of pre-Covid volumes. Among these destinations, 27 are within the Greater China Region and 16 in outside of the region, which equal 70% and 50% of pre-Covid levels.

Chan added that there will be 28 airlines serving the city from Mar. 26, which is 70% of pre-Covid levels. The number of flights has only return to half of the pre-Covid number, but the number will reach 480 per week by the end of this month.

At the same occasion, Eric Fong, marketing director at the Macau International Airport Co. Ltd., added that amid the growing number of flights, incoming Southeast Asian airlines are applying for rights to serve the city. Some of them are planning to serve destinations such as Maldives and Palau. The authority and the airlines are striving to settle details by the third quarter.

Currently, the airport serves about 9,000 to 10,000 passengers per day, which equates to 40% of pre-Covid levels, Fong added.