Visitors in Macao spent almost 38 billion patacas in the first six months of this year, up 16.4 percent year-on-year and an increase of 15.8 percent when compared to the same period in 2019, before Covid-19 put the city’s tourism industry on hiatus.
That’s according to the latest figures from the Statistics and Census Service (known by its Portuguese initials DSEC), which do not include gaming expenditure.
On a per-capita basis, visitor expenditure came in at 2,260 patacas – a sizable jump of 40.5 percent when compared with the initial six months of 2019. However, that figure was down almost 19 percent year-on-year. DSEC attributed the steep drop to a “high base of comparison [arising from] visitors’ pent-up demand” when pandemic travel restrictions were lifted in early 2023.
[See more: Macao breaks single-day border crossing record]
Shopping made up around 47 percent of the total spending by travellers, with accommodation (24.6 percent) and food & beverages (20.5 percent) in a distant second and third places respectively.
By origin, mainland Chinese were the biggest spenders – averaging 2,632 patacas per person, per trip. Singaporean and South Korean visitors both averaged 2,592 patacas, and Thai visitors were close behind with 2,522 patacas. The Japanese and Malaysians, meanwhile, tend to spend closer to 1,800 patacas each when visiting the SAR.
Almost 17 million people travelled to Macao during the first half of the year, an increase of 43.6 percent year-on-year. That’s about 82 percent of the number of visitors seen in the first half of 2019.
