Tourism | 760,000 group visitors during first three quarters of the year

The number of visitors to Macau travelling on package tours rose by 25.6 percent year-on-year to 760,000 in September, reflecting a month-to-month increase of 8.9 percent. According to information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), group visitors from mainland China (635,000), the Republic of Korea (34,000) and Taiwan (37,000) went up year-on-year by 32.4 percent, 10.8 percent and 2.4 percent respectively. Tourists from Japan (13,000) and Hong Kong (11,000) dropped by 7.1 percent  and 21.1 percent  respectively.  In the first three quarters of 2017, visitors on package tours totalled 6,012,000, up by 11 percent year-on-year.

The data released by the DSEC indicates that outbound residents using the services  of travel  agencies  increased  by  6.7 percent year-on-year to 106,000. Residents travelling on package tours grew by 7.4 percent to 39,000, with those going to mainland China (26,000) rising by 4.7 percent. In the first three quarters of 2017, outbound residents using the services of travel agencies totalled 1,017,000, up by 11 percent year-on- year.

The number of guests of hotels and guesthouses in September 2017 increased by 3.2 percent year-on-year to 1,047,000. Guests coming from mainland China (711,000) and the Republic of Korea (41,000) rose by 10.9 percent and 45 percent respectively year-on-year, whereas those from Hong Kong (105,000) and Taiwan (42,000) decreased by 29.4 percent and 6.1 percent. The average length of stay of guests went up by 0.1 nights to 1.5 nights. The average occupancy rate of hotels and guesthouses rose by 3.9 percentage points year- on-year to 86.6 percent.

In the first three quarters of 2017, guests of hotels and guesthouses totalled 9,699,000, up by 12.5 percent year-on- year.

There were 107 hotels and guesthouses operating at the end of September. The number of guest rooms increased by 1.4 percent year-on-year to 37,000, with 5-star hotel rooms rising by 2.3 percent to 22,000.