The number of visitors in Macao rose by 14.9 percent in the first six months of the year, when compared with the year prior – coming in at 19.22 million, the latest official figures show. The second quarter saw 9.36 million visitors, down from the first quarter’s 9.86 million.
Same-day visitors between January and June totalled 11.18 million while the number of visitors staying at least one night came in at 8.04 million. These were rises of 25.8 percent and 2.6 percent year-on-year respectively. The cumulative average length of stay decreased by 0.1 day year-on-year, to 1.1 days.
Mainland Chinese continued to make up the bulk of travellers to Macao, with their numbers increasing by 19.3 percent year-on-year to 13.77 million (71.6 percent of the total). Those travelling under the expanded Individual Visit Scheme – 7.41 million – rose by 24.6 percent.
Visitors from the nine Guangdong cities in the Greater Bay Area rose by 25.7 percent year-on-year to 7.02 million. That was driven by an upsurge of 57 percent in the number of visitors from the neighbouring city of Zhuhai, who are now able to visit Macao once per week for up to 7 days, thanks to new multiple-entry permits.
[See more: Macao is welcoming more visitors, but they’re spending less, local economist warns]
Visitors from Taiwan (462,000) went up by 14 percent year-on-year, while those from Hong Kong (3.65 million) rose by 1.1 percent.
The number of international visitors in the first six months of 2025 rose by 14.8 percent year-on-year, to 1.34 million. The biggest growth spurts were seen from South Korea (21.7 percent) and Japan (23.6 percent). South Korea was also the biggest foreign source of visitors, at 282,000 arrivals, followed by the Philippines at 274,000.
More than 80 percent of travellers entered the SAR via land crossings, with the Border Gate and Hengqin Port each experiencing year-on-year growth of 25.5 percent and 40.6 percent respectively. The number of air and sea arrivals dropped by 5.2 percent and 4.1 percent respectively.
For the month of June, the number of arrivals rose by 13.3 percent year-on-year to 2.89 million. The recent figures indicate Macao is on track to meet the government’s target of between 38 to 39 million tourists in 2025, which was considered “optimistic” back in January. There were 34.9 million visitors in 2024, while pre-pandemic 2019 drew 39.4 million.
