Tourism | Visitor arrivals plunge to just over 427,000 in Feb

Tourist arrivals in the Macau SAR has dropped to 427,122 in February, registering a decline of 23.3% month-to-month, according to the latest data provided by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC). The figure, however, represented an uplift of 173.1% year-on-year when the Covid-19 pandemic began to spread in February last year.
The source of visitors continues to be from the mainland, which surged by 426.4% year-on-year to 380,649, with those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) (163,157) escalating by 2,702.4%.
Tourism arrivals in January stood at 556,765 with the Chinese New Year holiday and the easing of visa restrictions. The Chinese holiday is another season in which the city generally expects an increased flow of tourist arrivals. However, this year the mainland government discouraged its citizens from travel due to the new outbreaks that occurred during that time.
Currently, the central government is still not issuing group visas to its citizens despite calls from the city’s tourism authorities. However, local officials have previously stressed that this request is still under negotiation.
Despite the group visas not being issued, Macau’s number-one source market has gradually been able to apply for IVS since the SAR opened its borders in August to these residents in a bid to recuperate tourist arrivals.
The easing of entry in the city through measures such as the cancelation of quarantine from those arriving from the mainland has also contributed to the arrival numbers.
Visitors from the nine Pearl River Delta cities in the Greater Bay Area totaled 240,933 this month, of which 106,452 (44.2% of total) came from Zhuhai. Meanwhile, there were 40,037 visitors from Hong Kong and 6,410 from Taiwan.
Prior to the pandemic, the SAR received nearly 40 million tourists in 2019 – nearly 35 million more than the 2020 visitor arrivals – crippling the economy due to its heavy reliance upon the sector. The visitor arrivals in 2020 plummeted to 5.92 million, representing an 85% year-on-year decline.
This year, the government is aiming for a target of six to 10 million tourist arrivals.
The expectation is a long shot for the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) as it has previously acknowledged that it is “hard” to forecast the yearly arrivals and MGTO has to be more prudent about this year’s projection, given the fickle nature of Covid-19 — as reflected in daily arrivals climbing to peaks during Christmas and New Year holidays last year but dropping since January due to outbreaks in mainland China.
According to a recent report issued by Fitch Ratings, domestic tourism led by China is gaining traction, as the containment of the pandemic sets the stage for the gradual normalization of domestic activity in parts of the Asia Pacific region.