Hong Kong-based travel platform Klook revealed Friday that it had experienced a 50-fold increase in Macau hotel and event bookings compared to the previous month in anticipation of borders reopening on 8 January.
On a weekly basis, overall hotel bookings increased 3.2 times and searches doubled while searches for mainland China increased by more than three times on the same day.
“The number of bookings and searches for Macau on the platform is increasing and is expected to continue to rise in the future,” Klook said in a statement.
A Macau travel industry representative stated earlier that the occupancy of Macau’s hotels was expected to rise significantly during the upcoming Chinese New Year holidays.
“With free passage between the Mainland, Macau and Hong Kong, the hotel booking rate in Macau has already reached 60% during the Chinese New Year holidays, and if the current progress is maintained, the hotel occupancy rate is expected to reach 90% during the Chinese New Year holidays,” said Andy Wu, Chairman of the Travel Industry Council of Macau.
“This year’s Chinese New Year holidays is expected to be the most visited since the pandemic, and with the restoration of the transportation capacity between Hong Kong and Macau, it is believed that the number of visitors can reach at least 30,000 per day.”