May tourist arrivals up 9% month-on-month

May saw a 9% increase in tourist arrivals than April, the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) has announced.
The government’s statistic body pointed out that in May, the city has received a total of 866,000 tourist arrivals. Not only was it 9% more than the figures in April, the number was an astonishing 53-fold upsurge from May last year.
It must be stressed, however, that no tourism endorsement was issued by mainland China in May last year. In addition, foreigners were also banned from entering Macau.
Overnight visitors and same-day visitors amounted to about 474,000 and 392,000 respectively.
The average length of stay of visitors shortened by 3.7 days year-on-year to 1.6 days, with that of overnight visitors (2.9 days) and same-day visitors (0.1 day) dropping by 11.8 days and 0.1 day respectively.
The local tourism regulator, besides other governmental bodies, has stressed that many residents in further away regions of the mainland were not aware that they did not need to be quarantined when they visited Macau. This may justify the massive drop of nights stayed by visitors.
Visitors from closer regions, such as Guangdong Province, normally choose not to stay in local hotels.
In terms of the source of visitors, the number of mainland visitors rocketed by 5,300% year-on-year to nearly 800,000, with about 336,000 travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme.
Visitors from the nine Pearl River Delta cities in the Greater Bay Area totaled to about 430,000, of which 47% came from Zhuhai. Meanwhile, there were 64,000 visitors from Hong Kong and 6,363 from Taiwan.
Analysed by the checkpoint, the number of visitor arrivals by land in May shot up by 4,660% year-on-year to 764,547, and 618,370 (80.9%) arrived through the Border Gate. Visitor arrivals by air and by sea totaled to 75,244 and 26,272 respectively. AL