Macau: Golden Week visitors down 87% in first days

The city has seen low numbers of visitors for the annual holiday compared to 2019, despite the resumption of visas.

Macau.- The first three days of the autumn Golden Week holiday from October 1 to 3 saw just 58,345 arrivals in the city.

The figures revealed by the city’s Public Security Police, are down 87.2 per cent on the same period in 2019.

Golden Week is considered a peak season for Macau’s gaming tourism. Each year, hundreds of thousands of mainland Chinese visitors choose Macau as their destination for the holiday.

Last year, around 985,000 people visited the SAR during the whole week of holiday, which ran from October 1 to 7.

This year despite the resumption of visas for visitors from mainland China under the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS), Macau welcomed just 15,500 visitors on the first day of the holiday, down 88.5 per cent year-on-year. 

The visitor arrival tally increased to 22,116 on October 2, still a decline of 86.1 per cent compared to 2019. On Saturday, Macau logged 20,726 arrivals, down 87.2 per cent.