Visitors in free fall, especially from the mainland

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitors to Macau dropped 4.4% year-on-year in February.

According to DSEC, the drop is mainly due to a relatively high comparison base resulting from the Spring Festival Golden Week falling entirely in February last year, while this year, the 8-day holiday was shared between January and February.

February accounted for some 3,147,184 visitors, almost half a million less than January this year (3,646,561), i.e., -13.69% month-to-month.

According to the same official statistics release, overnight visitors (1,259,358) dropped by 11.7% year-on-year, while same-day visitors (1,887,826) rose by 1.1%.

The average length of stay of visitors held steady year-on-year at 1.1 days, the same happening for the duration of stay for overnight visitors (2.2 days) and same-day visitors (0.3 days).

Despite the results of February alone, in the first two months of this year, 6,793,745 visitor arrivals were recorded, a 10.4% increase y-o-y.

Same-day visitors (4,043,105) grew significantly by 20.8%, while overnight visitors (2,750,640) dropped by 2%.

Cumulatively, visitors’ average length of stay shortened by 0.2 days year-on-year to 1 day in the first two months, with the duration of stay for overnight visitors (2.2 days) and same-day visitors (0.3 days) remaining unchanged.

DSEC said the decrease in the overall average length of stay was attributed to the year-on-year growth in the proportion of same-day visitors in the total number of visitors.

Mainland visitors on IVS dropping more

According to the DSEC report, visitors from the mainland decreased by 6.4% year-on-year to 2,291,662 in February, with those traveling under the Individual Visit Scheme (1,331,091) reduced even further by 11.1%.

Among the mainland visitors, 120,002 traveled under the “one trip per week measure,” 30,677 under the “multiple-entry measure,” and 9,262 under the “tourist group multi-entry measure.” Additionally, visitors from the nine Pearl River Delta cities in the Greater Bay Area fell by 3.2% year-on-year to 1,122,493.

In contrast, visitors from Taiwan (67,951) rose by 14.4% year-on-year, while those from Hong Kong (579,843) dropped by 4.7%.

International visitors are up by 18%

International visitors totaled 207,728 in February, up by 17.9% year-on-year. Southeast Asian markets, visitors from Indonesia (14,921), Malaysia (14,480), Thailand (11,261), and Singapore (6,762) rose by 19.6%, 18.1%, 25.5%, and 25.2% year-on-year, respectively, while those from the Philippines (38,847) decreased by 2.5%.

In the South Asian markets, visitors from India (4,093) remained stable year over year, while in the Northeast Asian markets, visitors from South Korea (59,330) and Japan (14,444) presented the most significant leaps, growing by 41.8% and 26.2%, respectively.

In the long-haul markets, the number of visitors from the USA (10,561) increased by 6.6% yearly.

Arrivals by sea drop by almost one-quarter

Statistics from DSEC also show that the number of visitors arriving by sea recorded a significant drop last month.

Analysis of data by checkpoint shows that the number of visitor arrivals by land (2,579,462; 82% of total), sea (334,443; 10.6%), and air (233,279; 7.4%) showed respective year-on-year decreases of 1.5%, 21.8%, and 6%.