Macao welcomed 174,234 visitors yesterday – the third day of the seven-day National Day break that began on 1 October. The figure, cited by multiple media outlets, is the highest single-day visitor total recorded during the mainland Chinese holidays known as “golden week,” beating the previous record of 166,100 that was only set on Tuesday.
Most checkpoint crossings – inbound or outbound – took place via the Border Gate (70,546 people), Hengqin Port (30,701 people) and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (26,779 people). Hengqin Port, in particular, has seen significant growth in traffic, with data showing a year-on-year increase of 65 percent.
Visitor rates far exceed the forecasts made by the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), which initially predicted a daily visitor arrival figure of around 100,000.
Speaking to local media yesterday, the MGTO’s acting chief, Cheang Wai Tong, revised the forecast, saying “We can keep the overall average daily visitor arrivals to above 130,000.”
[See more: Macao sets a new visitor record for the National Day holidays]
Both Cheang and the president of the Travel Industry Council of Macau, Andy Wu, attributed the strong tourism figures to a slew of central government measures implemented earlier this year. They include expanding the number of Chinese cities under the Facilitated Individual Travel scheme, introducing the Hengqin-Macao multiple entry visa, and raising the duty-free limit for visitors to Macao.
“The tourism numbers are ideal,” Wu said. He expressed confidence that the local government would ramp up tourism advertising in mainland China and pointed out that the influx of mainland visitors would positively impact local businesses.
Hotel numbers have also been favourable, according to Cheang, who said that the occupancy rate of 95 percent, which was logged on 1 October, is expected to persist over the next several days.
