There were 25.92 million visitors to Macao in the first three quarters of this year, according to the Statistics and Census Service. The figure represents an increase of just over 30 percent when compared to the same period in 2023, but is just under 86 percent of the number for the first nine months of pre-pandemic 2019.
The growth was mainly in same-day visitors, who at 13.83 million arrivals showed a year-on-year increase of nearly 43 percent. Visitors staying at least one night grew by just over 18 percent to reach 12.08 million. The average length of stay for the latter remained unchanged at 2.3 days.
As regards sources of visitors, the great majority were, as always, domestic travellers. Visitors from mainland China increased by more than 36 percent year-on-year to 18.21 million. Visitors from Hong Kong (5,402,071) and Taiwan (623,880) rose by just under 1 percent and almost 82 percent respectively.
[See more: Macao handed out 70,000 cheap or free air tickets in the first half of 2024]
International visitors soared by more than 95 percent year-on-year to 1.68 million in the first three quarters, representing over 70 percent of pre-pandemic levels. All major overseas markets showed growth, but especially Malaysia, India, South Korea and Japan.
Nearly half of all visitors to Macao arrived by the Border Gate checkpoint, and nearly a third via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. Visitor arrivals by air (2.3 million) showed more than 56 percent growth.
For the month of September 2024, the number of arrivals rose by nearly 10 percent year-on-year to 2.52 million or over 91 percent of the comparable figure in the same month in 2019.
