Visitor arrivals fall 3 percent

Visitor arrivals decreased by 3 percent year-on year to a total of 2,471,253 persons in April 2016, according to information released by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), however the figure was up 4.4 percent when compared with the previous month, March.
DSEC accredits the yearly decline to the fact that the Easter holiday fell in April last year instead of March as in this year.
Last month same-day visitors dropped by 10 percent year-on-year to 1,247,036, whereas overnight visitors rose by 5.6 percent to 1,224,217. The average length of stay of visitors increased by 0.2 days year-on-year to 1.1 days, with same-day visitors holding stable at 0.2 days and overnight visitors climbing 0.3 days to an average of 2.1 days.
Visitors from mainland China increased by 1.2 percent year-on-year in April to 1,651,662, coming largely from Guangdong Province (666,166), Hunan Province (75,290) and Fujian Province (65,373).

Those visiting from South Korea (43,661), Thailand (25,321) and Taiwan (92,141) increased on a yearly basis by 5.9 percent, 39.5 percent and 9.7 percent, respectively year-on-year. On the other hand those from the Philippines (25,979) and Hong Kong (485,970) decreased by 0.7 percent and 19.4 percent respectively. Long-haul visitors from the U.S. and the U.K. decreased slightly year-on-year while those from Australia and Canada increased marginally.
Analyzed by entry point, visitor arrivals through the Border Gate numbered 1,244,085 last month, while those entering via the Cotai checkpoint reached 168,025, rising by 3.7 percent and 9.1 percent, respectively year-on-year.
Meanwhile those arriving via the Outer Harbor (510,658) and the Provisional Ferry Terminal in Taipa (352,025) fell by 19.6 percent and 2.6 percent respectively. Visitor arrivals through Macau International Airport increased by 13.9 percent year-on-year to 194,590.
In the first four months of 2016, visitor arrivals totaled 9,928,359, marginally down by 0.3 percent year-on-year. For this period, Mainland visitors and Hong Kong visitors were down by 1 percent and 3 percent compared with the same four months in 2015. DB