Festive celebrations drew more than 40,000 visitors to Macao on Christmas Eve, the third highest daily figure in a year when Covid-19 has blighted the tourism industry.
The Macao Government Tourism Office said that 40,284 arrivals were recorded on Friday, slightly below the 44,699 total for 1 May.
Mainland visitors were attracted by the city’s authentic Christmas ambience, as well as spectacles like the Drone Gala show, which flew over Nam Van Lake for the last time on 25 December, and the Light Festival’s installations and video mapping across the city.
In the run-up to Christmas, an average of 24,374 tourists crossed the border each day between 17 and 23 December. Hotel occupancy hovered at 52.5 per cent, slightly up from November.
Despite the Christmas Eve uptick, visitor arrivals still lag a long way behind December 2019, when the daily average was 99,464.
