The total number of visitor arrivals during the 2018 Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday increased 6.5 percent year- on-year, according to statistics released yesterday by the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO).
Some 963,265 visitor arrivals were recorded during the CNY holiday. Of these, 716,041 were mainland visitors, representing a surge of 12.3 percent from the previous year.
On February 21, the last day of the holiday period, 106,000 mainland tourist arrivals were recorded, representing a 1.2 percent increase year-on-year. However, the total number of visitors dropped by 1.4 percent to 136,000.
Wu Keng Kuong, president of the Travel Industry Council of Macau, said the number of tourists this CNY holiday had exceeded the industry’s expectations, even though the industry was aware of problems with Macau’s tourism capacity.
Wu also commented that the checkpoints’ efficiency should be improved, and expressed hopes that the Macau government can communicate with the Gongbei immigration department in order to improve the management of the Gongbei immigration station during holiday periods.
According to a report by Macao Daily News, the Gongbei immigration authority recorded 2.26 million crossings at the Gongbei port, 100,000 more than last year.
The Gongbei immigration authority said that the efficiency of the checkpoints improved noticeably compared to last year, and added that the checkpoints were able to maintain order.
It attributed the improved border crossing procedure to the expansion of e-channels at Gongbei.
The Gongbei port has 191 e-channel checkpoints. During the CNY holiday, 75 percent of the crossings at Gongbei were recorded through e-channels.
As the number of tourist arrivals increased, so did the number of taxi infractions, as reported by the Public Security Police Force (PSP).
Some 352 taxi infractions were recorded between February 14 and February 21, including 250 cases of overcharging.
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