It’s been anecdotally known for some time that a significant number of Macao and Hong Kong residents are choosing to do their spending in neighbouring mainland Chinese cities like Zhuhai, where prices are lower and choice greater.
Now a new study from the the Statistics Bureau of Zhuhai, cited by multiple news outlets, has attempted to put some numbers to the trend.
Researchers found that more than 360,000 Macao and Hong Kong residents travel to Zhuhai each month, collectively spending a staggering 454 million yuan per month or around 5.5 billion yuan a year – money that could otherwise have gone to retailers or restauranteurs in the SARs.
As part of the study, the bureau interviewed 200 Macao and Hong Kong visitors and found that around half of them did not stay overnight in Zhuhai, but merely visited for the day. The remainder were evenly split, between those spending one night in the city and visitors spending two or more nights.
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The figure for SAR vehicles entering the mainland city have also been sizable, with the bureau indicating that a daily average of around 1,200 Macao cars and 1,500 Hong Kong cars have driven into Zhuhai on non-peak days since June of this year.
During busy days such as Friday and Saturday, the daily number of Macao and Hong Kong vehicles can rise to 2,100 and 4,500 respectively.
The figures will no doubt fuel further concern among businesses in Macao and Hong Kong, many of which are unable to compete with the variety and affordability offered on the Chinese mainland.
The study comes in the wake of a recent Macao consumer satisfaction survey that found local residents rated Zhuhai’s food and beverage sector higher than Macao’s.
