Record visitor numbers wrap 2023

The 2023 year closed with a new record for single-day visitor numbers, with 175,030 visitors entering Macau on Dec. 31, the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) has said in a press statement.

The is the highest number of entries in a day since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Contributing to the year-end total, this figure resulted in the 2023 year closing with a provisional total of 28.23 million visitors, signifying a 71.6% recovery when compared to the 2019 year-end tally of 39.41 million visitors.

The previous single-day record occurred on Oct. 2 during the “Golden Week of the National Day,” when 161,200 visitors entered the region.

The 2023 overall count averages around 77,000 visits per day, setting a new reference baseline for local tourism operators and policymakers for the current year.

In the same press statement, MGTO said visitor numbers to Macau trended upwards considering the full reopening of borders in 2023. Meanwhile, the tourism industry showed good recovery and growth prospects, proving the Macau’s attractiveness as a global tourism and leisure center while showcasing visitors’ confidence in the region.

Data released previously shows Macau received almost 680,000 visitors between the holiday of the establishment of the Macau Special Administrative Region (Dec. 20) and Christmas (until Dec. 26).

During the same period, hotel occupancy between Dec. 23 and 26 reached 90.8%.

The MGTO expects tourism to stabilize in 2024 and aims to improve tourist products and services as part of the development and diversification strategy, aligning with the “1 + 4” economy and emphasis on “tourism +.”

International visitors with ‘strong’ recovery

Reviving foreign visitor numbers to Macau was a key government goal for 2023.

The MGTO reported a strong recovery at the end of 2023 due to the recent influx of foreign visitors, particularly in November over two weekends of the Macau Grand Prix and other events. In December 2023, foreign visitors reached about 93% of 2019 numbers.

Citing entry figures from the last few days of last year, the MGTO said the daily average of foreign visitors exceeded 10,000 for five consecutive days between Dec. 26 and 30, with 11,258 entries on the last day, a figure close to the 2019 average of 12,104.

Nonetheless, this figure continues to be quite low when compared to mainland and Greater China visitors, who account for over 90% of total daily tourist entries.

The MGTO also said the preliminary figures demonstrate that “the recovery in the daily monthly average [of] international visitors increased from 10.1% in January to 94.4% in December 2023.”

New Year’s weekend sees almost 400,000 visitors

Continuing the momentum seen in year-end tourism figures, the Dec. 30 to Jan. 1 (3 days) weekend saw 399,180 visitor entries, with overall border movements nearing almost 2 million individuals.

However, January 1, 2024, marked a reversal in this trend, where visitor outflow significantly surpassed inflow across all visitor types.

On this day, according to data from the Public Security Police Force, only 85,615 visitors entered, while the number of departures totaled 157,053.

Unsurprisingly, the Border Gate checkpoints continued to be the busiest checkpoints, followed by the Port of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge and the Hengqin Port.