The number of visitors entering Macau reached 581,986 in October, down 81.9% over the same month last year but representing a 29.6% improvement over September, according to figures published by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).
October was the first month in which visitors from across all of mainland China were welcome following resumption of the Individual Visit Scheme in late September. IVS had been resumed for Zhuhai residents from 12 August and Guangdong Province from 26 August.
The DSEC said that overnight visitors reached 308,222, representing 53% of all arrivals, with 273,764 same-day visitors. The average length of stay of each visitor climbed slightly to 1.4 days.
With Macau’s borders still largely closed to most countries, mainland China accounted for almost 93% of all arrivals at 539,482. Visitors from the nine Pearl River Delta cities in the Greater Bay Area totaled 282,170, of whom 135,991 came from Zhuhai. There were 37,909 visitors from Hong Kong and 4,574 from Taiwan.
The DSEC also noted that 442,764 arrivals entered Macau by land, with just 26,778 by plane and 11,711 by ferry.
For the first 10 months of 2020 combined, visitor arrivals are down 86.2% year-on-year to 4,601,090.
