The first three quarters of 2024 have seen visitor spending in Macao – excluding money spent on gambling at casinos – increase by eight percent when compared with the same period last year, official figures indicate. It totalled 56.21 billion patacas.
The Statistics and Census Service (known by its Portuguese initials DSEC) attributed the rise to “a substantial increase” of more than 30 percent in visitor arrivals. Notably, spending was up 17.5 percent compared with the first nine months of 2019, before Covid-19 restrictions severely constrained Macao’s tourism sector for three years.
Per capita spending (excluding gambling) averaged 2,168 patacas across the period, down 17 percent year-on-year but up by 36.9 percent when compared with 2019. Out of the nationalities noted by DSEC, Singaporean visitors spent the most per capita on average – 2,812 patacas – followed by Thais with 2,617 patacas, then South Koreans at 2,531 patacas. Visitors from the Chinese mainland, Macao’s biggest source market, spent 2,487 patacas on average.
[See more: Macao’s visitor arrivals this year have broken the 30 million mark]
Those in the SAR to attend performances and sporting events spent, on average, 5,211 patacas during their time in the city, while those here for MICE events spent 4,439 patacas.
Visitors spent the largest portion of their non-gambling money on shopping, which took 45.6 percent of total expenditure. Accommodation followed with 25.5 percent, then came food and beverages at 20.8 percent.
In the third quarter alone, visitor spending (excluding gambling) decreased by 6 percent year-on-year to come in at 18.4 billion patacas. Per capita spending for the quarter averaged 2,002 patacas, a 15.4 year-on-year decrease.
