Visitor arrivals in Macao more than doubled last month when compared with the same period in 2023, according to the latest figures from the Statistics and Census Service (also known by its Portuguese initials DSEC).
The 3,293,564 people who entered Macao in February also made up 92.9 percent of the pre-pandemic equivalent in 2019. This was a bigger gain than January, which saw an 84 percent recovery.
The surge was not unexpected: a bumper Lunar New Year saw around 1.35 million arrivals between 10 and 17 February alone, with a peak influx of 217,000 on the third day of the holiday.
[See more: Easter could see 100,000 daily visitor arrivals]
The number of same-day visitors in February jumped year-on-year by 149 percent (to 1,867,660 people), while overnighters increased by 69 percent (1,425,904).
Mainland Chinese visitors were back to 95.7 percent of their 2019 figure, making up 74.4 percent of the total. Visitors from Hong Kong (608,739) and Taiwan (59,390) grew by 16.3 percent and 165 percent year-on-year respectively, rebounding to 92.5 percent and 71.9 percent of the corresponding levels in the same month of 2019.
International visitors, meanwhile, recovered by just 71.6 percent compared to February 2019’s inflow. South Koreans and people from the Philippines made up the two biggest foreign groups.
