Macau visitor numbers increase 9.3% in March

Macau saw its visitor numbers grow by 9.3% year-on-year to 2,733,311 in March, according to information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC). The figure represented an 11.0% sequential decrease due to February’s Chinese New Year holiday period, which attracted the highest monthly visitation since August 2014.

Nevertheless, March numbers included an 8.6% year-on-year increase in overnight visitors to 1,451,263 and a 10.1% increase in same-day visitors to 1,282,048.

Visitors from Mainland China increased by 9.8% year-on-year to 1,816,743 in March, with those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme rising by 15.5% to 856,200. Mainland visitors came primarily from Guangdong Province (743,112), Hunan Province (84,557) and Fujian Province (66,659).

Visitors from the Republic of Korea (70,585), Hong Kong (538,223) and Taiwan (90,129) increased by 7.9%, 9.3% and 6.9% respectively while there were also increases from the United States (17,769), Canada (7,597), Australia (7,356) and the United Kingdom (5,322).

Analyzed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by land grew by 8.9% year-on-year to 1,542,325, with those arriving through the Border Gate (1,342,380) increasing by 8.5%. Visitor arrivals by sea rose 4.8% year-on-year to 919,489 including a 9.1% increase in those arriving via the new Taipa Ferry Terminal (363,704). Visitor arrivals by air totaled 271,497, surging by 30.6% year-on-year.

For the first three months of 2018, visitor arrivals have totaled 8,545,713 – an 8.6% year-on-year increase. It includes a 10.2% boost in overnight visitors to 4,330,438 and a 7.0% increase in same-day visitors to 4,215,275.

Mainland Chinese visitation grew 13.4% in 1Q18 to 6,031,374.