Visitors up slightly during the Ching Ming Festival

Visitor arrivals during the first three days of the Ching Ming Festival (April 4-6) have surpassed the local tourism authorities’ expectations, with the daily average reaching 118,934, data from the Public Security Police Force (PSP) has shown.

According to the forecast from the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), the daily average was expected to be around 100,000 visitors, a figure surpassed by almost 19%.

The first day (a public holiday) registered a higher influx of visitors, with 136,363 entering Macau.

Considering the figures recorded over the Easter Holidays, the whole 10-day period, which includes both holidays (March 29 to April 7), should have delivered close to one million visitors over the 10-day period, which would be a result very close to the MGTO’s forecast.

Until 9 p.m. yesterday, the total figure of visitor arrivals to Macau over the whole period was 977,970, with a daily average of 97,797.

There was a significant decline in visitor numbers after the second day of the Ching Ming Festival, with a sharp drop being registered from the second day (April 5 – 135,661) to the third day (April 6 – 84,779).

Although tourism authorities have not yet released final figures on hotel occupancy, the sector said that it should be around 90% over these 10 days.

HZMB sees record-breaking traffic

The Zhuhai port of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) handled 19,570 vehicles on Saturday, achieving a new peak in daily vehicle traffic for the third time in seven days, official data showed.

From March 28 to April 6, over 1 million passengers and 170,000 vehicles, both inbound and outbound, passed through the port, as reported by the Zhuhai border inspection station of the bridge, the world’s longest bridge-and-tunnel sea crossing.

During the period, the total number of Hong Kong and Macau tourists exceeded 740,000, and Hong Kong and MacaU vehicles accounted for nearly 110,000, according to the inspection station.

Families from Hong Kong and Macau have become the main force, accounting for about 68% of the total passenger flow, an increase of 25 percentage points over the same period last year, the inspection station said.