Survey | Macau out of top five overseas destinations for mainland tourists

Macau has fallen out of the top five most popular overseas tourism destinations for mainland tourists during the Chinese National Day holiday, according to statistics released by Alipay and Alitrip, both under the parent company Ant Financial.

In 2017, the top five most popular overseas tourism destinations for mainland Chinese tourists were Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. This year, they were Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan.

Furthermore, statistics show that the number of Alipay transactions made in Macau were nearly triple that of last year. The overall number of transactions made in Macau during the Chinese holiday this year was 2.6 times that of last year, with an average of RMB1,009 spent per person.

Average consumption was also 1.5 times that of the same period in 2017.

In the business area around the Ruins of St. Paul, the number of transactions was 2.3 times that of last year, with average expenditure in the area doubling that of 2017.

In terms of number of transactions, various destinations in Asia continue to be the top of the list. Hong Kong remains the region where the largest number of overseas Alipay transactions were made, followed by Thailand and Japan.

The number of transactions in Hong Kong was 2.5 times that of the same period last year, with the per capita consumption estimated at RMB1,709, 1.4 times that of the same period in 2017.

According to the data available, the most popular places for mainland Alipay users to spend their money in Hong Kong are beauty stores, department stores and restaurants.

Among restaurants, Hong Kong-style and Western-style fast food restaurants have the highest number of transactions.

The country with the highest per capita consumption is Denmark (RMB8,764), followed by France and Italy. JZ