Macau expects 350,000 passenger arrivals during summer holidays

The Macau International Airport Corporation expects 350,000 arrivals in July and August.

Macau.- The Macau International Airport Corporation (CAM) has said it expects 350,000 passenger arrivals in the summer holiday period during July and August.

It expects 180,000 passengers in July and 170,000 in August. That compares to 160,000 in June.

The CAM reported 700,000 passengers during the first half of the year, down 22 per cent when compared to 2020.

Eric Fong, CAM director, said: “Since mainland flights are the predominant ones at this point, the number of passengers from eastern China regions takes up more than 60 per cent of the total number.”

The forecast comes after the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) reported that Macau received 3.93m tourists in the first half of 2021, up 20.2 per cent year-on-year.

Macau reported 528,519 visitors in June, of which 313,441 were same-day visitors and 215,078 were overnight visitors. Numbers were down 39 per cent month-on-month, due to the Labour Day break in May and Covid-19 cases in Guangdong province.

Macau’s GGR also fell in June after months of improvement, registering a decline of 37 per cent to MOP$6.54bn ($817.3m), down from MOP10.45bn (US$1.31bn) in May.

The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes said she believes Macau could welcome 7 million to 8 million visitors in 2021 based on the numbers the city registered during the first five months of the year.