Information from DSEC—Macau’s Statistics and Census Service—indicate visitor arrivals for August 2009 increased by 6.4 percent year-on-year to 2,065,336.
Analysed by place of residence, visitors from Mainland China increased by 8.9 percent year-on-year to 1,050,357 (50.9 percent of visitor arrivals), with 499,448 travelling to Macau under the Individual Visit Scheme, down by 15.3 percent from August 2008 (589,575). Visitors from Hong Kong (666,700); Taiwan (125,931); and Japan (37,505) rose by 2.9 percent, 12.6 percent and 27.1 percent respectively. Those from the Republic of Korea (25,727) and Malaysia (21,137) decreased by 15.4 percent and 13.9 percent. Same-day visitors (1,042,673) accounted for 50.5 percent of visitor arrivals, with 550,129 coming from Mainland China.
Cumulative visitor arrivals totalled 14,191,418 in the first eight months of 2009, down by 9.6 percent year-on-year. Visitors from Mainland China (7,030,457); Hong Kong (4,574,626); Taiwan (860,662); and Malaysia (199,952) fell by 14.5 percent, 1.6 percent, 4.2 percent and 28.7 percent respectively. Those from Japan (232,250) registered an increase of 4.6 percent. The cumulative number of same-day visitors accounted for 53.1 percent of total visitor arrivals, at 7,536,321.
Analysed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by sea totalled 5,692,080 in the first eight months of 2009, down by 7.3 percent year-on-year. The numbers arriving at the Outer Harbour decreased by 24.6 percent to 3,950,737, while those arriving at the Provisional Ferry Terminal in Taipa surged by 143.8 percent to 1,555,490.
Visitor arrivals by land dropped by 11.7 percent year-on-year to 7,464,425 in the first eight months of 2009; those arriving through the Border Gate totalled 6,932,085 and the majority were visitors from Mainland China (76.8 percent) and Hong Kong (15.1 percent).
Visitor arrivals by air went down by 7.2 percent year-on-year to 1,034,913 in the first eight months of 2009. Visitors arriving at the Macau International Airport fell by 7.1 percent to 1,014,085, with the majority coming from Taiwan (39.4 percent), Mainland China (24.5 percent), Malaysia (7.7 percent) and Thailand (7.0 percent).