Research conducted by The Macau Research Centre has shown that only one-third of visitors from mainland China to Macau during the first week of September had spent time gambling during their stay.
The research, which follows the resumption of the Individual Visit Scheme for all residents of Guangdong Province on 26 August, included discussions with 107 mainland visitors between 1 and 6 September. Of those, 67.3% came from Zhuhai city and the remainder from other cities in Guangdong Province. IVS for the rest of China resumed on 23 September although the first approvals aren’t expected until 30 September.
The major purpose of visits was shopping (51.4%) and vacation, with only 16.8% visitors coming to Macau for gambling, although 31.8% of visitors admitted they had participated in gambling activities after arriving. Their average budget for gambling was around MOP$16,000 (US$2,000).
Over 50% of the visitors returned to mainland China on the same day, with the average length of stay being 1.9 days. Only 40.2% of visitors stayed in hotels.
According to the figures from the Public Security Force, around 14,600 visitors arrived in Macau on 1 September, which was the first day after visas began being approved for Guangdong residents under IVS. That figure comfortably exceeded the average 4,000 visitors per day in July but remained well below the 108,000 who entered Macau each day in 2019.
Most visitors said they were satisfied with their visit and approved of Macau’s preventive measures against COVID-19.
