Macau visitation grows 206% in August

Visits were down 93.7 per cent year-on-year but were three times those in July thanks to the resumption of the IVS system.

Macau.- Visitor arrivals in Macau climbed 206.9 per cent in August compared with July.

The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) said on Monday that 227,113 people entered Macau in August. 

The rise in numbers came after Zhuhai and Guangdong provinces resumed issuing the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) permits that tourists and gamblers usually use to enter the city.  

The DSEC said the increase was “attributable to an increase in mainland visitors travelling under different types of travel endorsements.” 

Although the number represents a 93.7 per cent drop compared with the same month in 2019, it’s a marked improvement on previous months.

Same-day visitors totalled 156,481, a 15.7 per cent year-on-year increase.  

Overnight visitors were 70,632. and the average length of stay fell by 0.3 days, to 0.9 days.

The number of visitors from the mainland was down 92.4 per cent year-on-year, to 200,833 people, with 13,043 travelling under the IVS.  

Visitors from the nine Pearl River Delta cities in the Greater Bay Area totalled 130,781, of whom 88,470 came from Zhuhai. There were also 23,415 visitors from Hong Kong and 2,862 from Taiwan. 

With these latest numbers, the DSEC said visitation in the first eight months of 2020 was down 87 per cent year-on-year, to 3.5 million people. The average length of stay increased by 0.2 days, to 1.4 days in the same period.  

The rest of mainland China is due to begin issuing IVS permits this week.