Visitor figures drop on the fourth day, still above forecast

The number of tourists entering Macau during the so-called Labor Day Holidays, which comprise five days between April 29 and May 3, started to drop on the fourth day after three days of well over 100,000, official statistics show.

On Tuesday, which is the fourth day out of the five-day holiday period, the number of entries registered at the lowest since the May 1 holidays started, with only 81,878 visitors until 9 p.m.

In the previous days, the daily figure was well above 100,000, breaking a yearly record in two consecutive days.

On the third day (May 1) the number of entries reached some 110,823. The current record for the year occurred on April 30, with 133,911 visitor entries.

In total, a total of 435,808 tourists arrived in Macau in the first four days, a figure that represents an average of 108,952 per day, well above the 70,000 per day figure forecasted by the Macao Government Tourism Office or even the 90,000 per day estimate predicted by the tourism industry.

Taking into account the current figures, it is unlikely that the five-day holiday period – already coined the “Labor Day Golden Week” – will deliver final numbers below the half-a-million entries mark.

Despite the significant drop in the number of visitors from the third to fourth day, the Public Security Police Force (PSP) continued to enforce crowd control measures in the surroundings of the Ruins of Saint Paul’s and the city’s historical center.

According to the Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak, the high influx of tourists did not at all compromise the safety of the city and population.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of a public event on Monday (May 1), Wong said that traffic at border crossing checkpoints had flowed in a smooth and orderly manner without any issues.

The Secretary also noted that on Sunday (April 30), an aggregate of more than 570,000 movements inbound and outbound were recorded at the borders, representing the highest daily number since the Covid-19 pandemic.

While the Border Gate checkpoint received the greater share of visitors, the nearby Qingmao Port had played an important role in diverting visitor traffic, the security chief noted, adding that the police had increased their patrolling at popular tourist attractions, and had been enforcing crowd-control management in those areas in a way that proved to be effective.

Wong also spoke of the efforts used to prevent cross-border parallel trading, although he did not disclose the outcomes of operations during this period.