Tourist arrivals down 2.6 percent in 2015

A minor monthly increase of visitor arrivals in December could not offset the overall 2015 decrease.  Macau received over 30.7 million visitors in 2015, 2.6 percent down year-on-year, according to a press release issued by the region’s Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) on Friday.
Visitors to Macau stayed an average of 1.1 days in 2015, up by 0.1 day year-on-year, according to DSEC. The number of visitors from the mainland, which accounted for 66.5 percent of the total, decreased by 4 percent on a yearly basis to 20.41 million. The data indicated that visitors came mainly from Guangdong Province, followed by Fujian and Hunan provinces.
The number of mainland visitors traveling as part of the Individual Visit Scheme declined by 0.5 percent  year-on-year to 9.52 million, with 71.2 percent of mainland visitors coming from Guangdong Province and 4.8 percent from Shanghai, DSEC figures showed. According bureau, the number of visitors from Hong Kong and Taiwan increased by 1.7 percent and 3.6 percent respectively, while those from the South Korea edged down by 0.1 percent.
The release further highlighted the fact that long-haul visitors from the United States and Canada rose marginally, while those from Australia and Britain experienced a decline by 12.8 percent and 1.3 percent respectively.
Due to the drop in mainland visitors, overnight visitors in 2015 lessened by 1.8 percent compared to a year earlier, while those from Hong Kong and Taiwan increased by 9.9 percent and 10.0 percent, DSEC stated.
Overnight visitors accounted for 46.6 percent of the total number of visitors, up by 0.4 percent, with the average stay period increasing by 0.2 day. MDT/Xinhua