Tourism in Macau: airport traffic reaches 80% of pre-Covid-19 levels

The airport recorded 6.34m journeys in the first ten months of the year.

Macau.- CAM, the operator of Macau’s international airport, has reported that the passenger traffic recovered to around 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels in the first ten months of this year. The airport recorded 6.34m passenger trips, an increase of 56.92 per cent in year-on-year terms.

CAM said in a statement on Friday (November 1) that most flight routes disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic have resumed, and some airlines have introduced wide-bodied aircraft to accommodate rising passenger demand. The majority of routes handled by the airport connect to locations in mainland China.

Data from Macau’s Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) show that Macau’s airport recorded 2.30 million visitor entries from January to September. Some 68.7 per cent of arrivals used mainland China identification.  

CAM has reported a new winter flight schedule featuring new services, including some from the city’s flag carrier, Air Macau. The winter flight schedule generally operates from late October until the end of March. A new Air Macau service to Taichung in Taiwan will start this month, and there will be more flights to Bangkok, Thailand, in December. Low-cost carrier Jeju Air intends to resume a route between Macau and Jeju island in South Korea.

Tourism in Macau: 25.9m visitors in first nine months of the year

The DSEC has reported that Macau received 25,920,914 visitors in the first nine months of the year. That’s an increase of 30.1 per cent when compared to last year and represents 85.8 per cent of the 2019 level.

Same-day visitors (13.83 million) rose by 42.8 per cent year-on-year and overnight visitors (12.05 million) by 18.1. The average length of stay shortened by 0.1 days in year-on-year terms to 1.2 days, with that of overnight visitors remaining unchanged at 2.3 days.

Mainland Chinese tourists accounted for the majority of arrivals at 18,217,413. That’s a rise of 36.3 per cent year-on-year but only 84.9 per cent of 2019 levels. The number travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS; 9,257,455) grew by 20.4 per cent year-on-year.

Visitors from Hong Kong reached 5,402,071, up 0.8 per cent year-on-year to 97.2 per cent of 2019 levels, while the number of tourists from Taiwan (623,880) reached 76.5 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels and was up 81.9 per cent compared to last year. International travellers totalled 1,677,550, up 95.1 per cent year-on-year to 70.7 per cent of 2019’s levels.

See also: Hotel occupancy rate reaches 85.4% in first nine months of the year