Macau visitor volume affected by Covid-19 surge in Shanghai, MGTO says

Macao Government Tourism Office director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, said the number of tourists to Macau has dropped due to Covid-19 cases in Shanghai.

Macau.- The MGTO has reported that average daily visitor arrivals to Macau have declined to about 11,000 in recent days. That compares to an average of 17,000 in March and 23,000 in February.

According to Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, the decline was due to the surge in Covid-19 cases in Shangai, one of China’s most populous urban centres where nearly all of some 26 million residents are under lockdown.

Fernandes said: “Whenever there are problems in our biggest source markets, it directly impacts our volume of visitors.” She then added the neighbouring provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and Shanghai are the top three sources of tourists to Macau.

The MGTO director also said that due to the Covid-19 situation, she does not expect any further relaxation of travel restrictions with mainland China in the short term. Mainland China continues to be the only country to have a largely quarantine-free travel bubble with Macau. 

Last November, the MGTO had said the city could receive up to 10 million visitors in 2022 if Macau finally resumed the e-visa programme with China and reopened its borders with Hong Kong.

Macau occupancy rate up 10.3 percentage points in February

Macau’s tourism sector recovered a little in February, with 493,000 visitors staying in hotels in the city. The number of hotel guests was up by 29.3 per cent year-on-year. The average hotel occupancy rate in Macau rose 10.3 percentage points to 48.7 per cent.

The DSEC reported that of total guests 396,000 came from mainland China. That’s an increase of 30.9 per cent year-on-year. Meanwhile, 68,000 were local guests – up 25.1 per cent year-on-year. The average occupancy rate for the first two months of 2022 was up 6.8 percentage points to 46.2 per cent.