Visitation to Macau has increased each day over the first three days of Golden Week, with the total number of arrivals reaching 424,179 by midnight on Wednesday – 14.0% higher than the same period in 2017.
The increase included a 24.1% surge in visitors from mainland China to 364,234, including 127,803 on Wednesday alone.
Macau welcomed a combined 131,971 arrivals on Monday, 144,12 on Tuesday and 147,996 on Wednesday.
Well over half of those visitors have arrived via the border gate (268,043), while 56,508 have entered through the Cotai Checkpoint and almost 77,000 via Macau’s two ferry terminals.
Despite the strong start to the week in terms of visitation, analysts have warned that Golden Week is shaping up weaker than expected.
Bernstein’s Vitaly Umansky, Zhen Gong and Kelsey Zhu stated in a note, “While hotel bookings looked strong going in, recent checks of OTAs, group travel and property websites imply remaining room availability. Last year, there was a similar development with initially strong bookings that did not result in outsized GGR.
“Q4 year-on-year growth is estimated to be in the range of 5% to 8%.”
China’s National Day celebration, also known as Golden Week, runs from Monday 1 October to Sunday 7 October.
