May golden week | 167,000 travelers recorded with tourism sector upbeat for strong recovery

Macau had welcome a total of 167,000 visitors during the five-day May Day holiday — with the average daily tourist tally standing high at 33,000 — representing a promising rebound, the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) unveiled the preliminary data on Friday.
There were 45,000 holidaymakers entering Macau on May 1, hitting a new single-day record high since the Covid-19 outbreak.
The average tourist arrival per day during the holiday outperforms the earlier prognosis by the MGTO of 30,000 only, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, director of MGTO, told TDM in an earlier interview.
“The statistics have been a huge encouragement for the city’s tourism industry,” and it anchors tourism practitioners’ confidence toward prospects for the city’s tourism market and economy, she added.
Fernandes said she was told by many tourism practitioners that their businesses had seen a sharp turnaround during the holiday.
In comparison, the daily traveler number was 158.2% higher than that during the Spring Festival Golden Week holiday this year and 25.4% more than that in April.
Overall, the daily tourist number during this May Day holiday reached 21.1% of pre-pandemic levels or the 2019 May Day holiday levels.
A fresh influx of tourists during the holiday drove the city’s occupancy rate as well.
According to the booking data offered by local accommodation, MGTO estimated that the city’s average occupancy rate during the May Golden Week was at 83.2% — a rate Fernandes said, “is inching closer to the 96.6% in 2019.”
Whilst stacked against the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday this year, the occupancy rate of the May Day holiday was 34.6 percentage points higher.
In terms of segment, the average occupancy rate of 5-star hotels stood at 84.8%, surging by 33.8 percentage points from the CNY holiday.
The rate for 4-star, 3-star and 2-star hotels was 79.6%, 86.6% and 74.9%, up by 29.7, 41.4 and 50.3 percentage points, respectively.
The average room price during the holiday was approximately 1,263.7 patacas, representing a modest increase of 1.7% from the previous CNY holiday.
Fernandes vows to continue launching promotional activities, both online and offline, in different Mainland cities.
The MGTO will also gear itself up for future reopening between Hong Kong and Macau and will continue to beef up efforts in promoting Macau to Hong Kong visitors.