Visitor arrivals increased by 13.7 percent year-on-year to 3,135,358 in October 2024, according to figures from the Statistics and Census Service (called the DSEC after its Portuguese abbreviation).
The total represents 24 percent growth over the preceding month and is 97.7 percent of the level recorded in the same month in 2019 – the last full year before the three-year Covid-19 pandemic put a break on tourism.
But while same-day visitors (1,789,072) grew by 23.3 percent, overnight visitors (1,346,286) increased by only 3.1 percent year-on-year and their average length of stay remained unchanged at 2.3 days – frustrating Macao’s efforts to get visitors to stay longer and hopefully spend more.
[See more: Macao is now expected to receive 34 million visitors this year]
As ever, domestic tourists made up the vast majority of arrivals, with visitors from the Chinese mainland increasing by 16.1 percent year-on-year to 2,263,443 in October. Visitors from Taiwan (68,701) rose by 28 percent, while those from Hong Kong (590,930) stayed almost level.
International visitors rose by 31.2 percent in a yearly comparison to 212,284, or 98.8 percent of the level in pre-pandemic October 2019. Visitors from Malaysia, South Korea and the USA showed notable growth.
Most visitors arrived by land and sea, but those using the airport (252,369) increased by 23.5 percent year-on-year.
