Macau registered 794,819 visitor arrivals in April, up 5.3 per cent from March and 7,000 per cent year-on-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Macau.- The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) has reported that 794,819 tourists visited Macau in April<\/strong>, up 7,000 per cent from April 2020 and up 5.3 per cent from March 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The number of visitor arrivals represents the highest monthly tally since the Covid-19 pandemic<\/strong> started. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Of those that visited Macau <\/strong>last month, 92 per cent (730,934 visitors) came from mainland China<\/strong>, which is the only country to have a largely quarantine-free travel bubble with Macau<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the numbers are encouraging, the number of visitor arrivals is still far from the 3.43 million arrivals Macau registered in April 2019<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Macau recorded a total of 2.53 million visitor arrivals<\/strong> for the first three months <\/strong>of the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes<\/strong>, Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) director, said Macau expects a daily visitor tally of over 30,000 during the summer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Census and Statistics Service has reported that the total spending of visitors (excluding gaming expenses) increased by 23.5 per cent<\/strong> year-on-year to MOP6.18bn in the first quarter of 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Authorities also revealed that the total spending of overnight visitors rose by 48.0 per cent year-on-year <\/strong>to MOP5.59bn, while that of same-day visitors dropped by 52.1 per cent to MOP589m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moody\u2019s Investor Service<\/a> has said that it believes Macau\u2019s economy could rebound <\/strong>to pre-Covid-19 levels by 2024<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Analysts said that although the special administrative region\u2019s (SAR) economy has been seriously hit<\/strong> by the Covid-19 pandemic, Macau maintains strong sovereign finances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moody\u2019s has given Macau an Aa3 rating<\/strong>, which means it is subject to very low credit risk<\/strong>. It said: \u201cThe growth volatility of Macau\u2019s economy is among the highest of all rated sovereigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut despite the highly volatile nature of economic growth, Macao\u2019s vast fiscal and external reserves \u2014 significantly stronger than those of similarly rated peers<\/strong> \u2014 and very high per capita incomes continue to support its credit profile.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In April, a report entitled \u201cThe case of Covid-19 and Macao\u2019s destination- and gambling-dependent economy<\/strong>\u201d, argued that Macau should turn to online gambling and technology<\/a> to help its recovery from the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report by Weng Marc Lim (Swinburne University of Technology, Malaysia) and Wai-Ming To (School of Business, Macao Polytechnic Institute) suggests casino operators should \u201cleverage on the technological advances<\/strong> brought by the Industrial Revolution 4.0, such as virtual reality, to deliver a revamped online gambling experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They state that online gambling combined with virtual reality could be effective to curb gambling addiction<\/strong> and could boost casino operators\u2019 revenue amid uncertainty about possible new Covid-19 waves<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMacau’s economy could reach pre-pandemic levels by 2024<\/h2>\n\n\n\n