According to the deputy director of the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), Hoi Io Meng, Macau welcomed an average of 3,600 daily foreign visitor arrivals in April – an increase of more than 270% over January foreigner visitation figures.
Foreigners refers to anyone from outside of Greater China – comprising the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan – with the Macau government having promised concessionaires tax cuts of up to 5% on gross gaming revenues generated by foreign players as an incentive.
Speaking with media this week, Hoi Io Meng pointed out that “the number of foreign visitors to Macau has been increasing on a monthly basis, with the average daily number of foreign visitors to Macau rising from 977 in January to 1,574 in February and 2,115 in March, then to 3,630 in April, an increase of 271.6% over January.
“Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand are the three main source markets for Macau among the Southeast Asian markets.”
A total 3,065,513 foreign visitors entered Macau in 2019, with a daily average of approximately 8,398 visitors. Foreign visitors represented 7.8% of the 39,406,181 total visitor arrivals that year, at an average of almost 108,000 arrivals each day.
Hoi explained that the total number of visitors to Macau has now recovered to 62% of pre-pandemic levels.
Meanwhile, the MGTO said it had this week arranged a “mega familiarization delegation” from Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand to visit Macau as part of its efforts to further develop tourism from Southeast Asia.
The delegation, comprising members of the travel trade, were brought to Macau for four days from 9 to 13 May.
“Through the industry operators’ direct experience in Macau’s new travel elements, the MGTO hopes to spark Southeast Asians’ interest in Macau as a preferred destination and expand the diversity of international source markets, gaining new momentum for tourism and economic revival,” the MGTO said.
