Tourism in Macau: 165,963 visitors on second day of Golden Week

The number of visitors recorded during the second day of the national holiday period was the second highest of this year.

Macau.- Authorities have reported that Macau recorded 165,963 tourist arrivals during the second day of the Golden Week holiday. It was the second-highest daily tally for visitor arrivals to Macau this year.

On Tuesday (October 1), the first day of the national holiday period, the city saw 138.254 visitors. The aggregate for the first two days of the holiday period reached 304.217.

The Border Gate crossing between Macau and Zhuhai, the nearest mainland city in Guangdong province, was the most active with 145,178 arrivals over the first two days. The Hengqin checkpoint was the second busiest checkpoint, with 55,109 arrivals.

On Thursday (September 26), Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, the director of Macau’s Government Tourism Office (MGTO), said that the city may see an average of over 100,000 visitors a day this October Golden Week if weather conditions remain favourable. Last year, Macau saw 932,000 tourists during the holiday, averaging 116,000 visitors per day.

Macau set to reach 33m tourist arrivals this year, MGTO says

Cheng Wai Tong, deputy director of the MGTO, said during a TDM phone-in program on Wednesday that Macau has recorded nearly 25m visitors in the first three quarters of 2024, and it is expected that over 8m more will visit the city in the next quarter. If this trend continues, Macau will likely reach the government’s target of 33m arrivals set earlier this year.

The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) reported that Macau received 23 million visitors in the first eight months of the year. That’s an increase of 30 per cent compared to last year, representing 84 per cent of the 2019 level.

Cheng also emphasised that hotels in the city are projected to have an occupancy rate of over 90 per cent by next Monday, after the Golden Week. He highlighted the growing number of two-star hotels and budget accommodation options in old districts in recent years, stating that this trend would benefit the overall tourism development.

At the end of August, there were 144 hotels in Macau, an increase of 8 compared to last year. There were 45,000 rooms available, while in 2019, previous to the Covid-19 pandemic, there were 119 such establishments, offering 39,000 rooms.

See also: Tourism in Macau: hotel occupancy reaches 85.5% in first eight months of the year