Macau: visitors arrival fell last November

While tourism decreased in the last months, the number is better than the estimations.

Macau.- Reaching the end of the year the analysis of the whole 2019 is not looking as bad as the early estimations related to the tourism in Macau. While the authorities expected a fall of visitors from the 40 millions estimated by optimistic sights, the official data shows an increase of the 15.3 percent year-on-year until October. November had other results:

“I believe that in November we will see, for the first time, a decrease in visitor arrivals. I also believe that we all witnessed a decrease in visitors of the Macau Grand Prix last month”, MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes said to local media.

According to the latest government data shows visitor arrivals have reached 33.4 million in the first 10 months of the year. Fernandes attributed the growth to the impact of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. Then, she noted that tourist numbers had started to taper off in November. 

Looking into the first half of 2020, Fernandes said she has not seen any obvious indications of an additional surge in tourism growth, noting that the surge experienced this year is likely the result of the opening of the HZMB.