The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) announced today that the total visitor arrivals to Macau topped 32.6 million in 2017, up 5.4 per cent from the year before.
Speaking at a press conference, MGTO director Helena Senna Fernandes said that visitors from mainland China increased by 5.3 per cent to a total of 29.4 million. International visitors increased by 6.2 per cent to a new record of more than 3.1 million, accounting for 9.8 per cent of total visitor arrivals.
Korean visitors increased by 32 per cent to 870,000. Japanese visitor arrivals climbed up by 9.4 per cent, whereas visitors from the Philippines and Indonesia rose by 7 per cent and 8 per cent respectively.
Senna Fernandes also said that by end 2017, there were 116 hotel establishments in Macau with a total of 37,901 rooms. This number includes 49 budget accommodation establishments with a total of 1,736 rooms.
Total visitor expenditure between January and September 2017 amounted to US$25.7 billion, representing a period-on-period growth of 16.1 percent.
MGTO also announced four major goals for 2018. They are to actively participate in the “Belt and Road” tourism development with new steps to increase the collaboration with mainland China and countries along the “Belt and Road”; strengthen cooperation with other members of the “China Maritime Silk Road Tourism Promotion Alliance”, jointly develop unique international travel itineraries and tourism products and promote multi-destination travel itineraries; capitalize on major travel expos and conferences as a platform to promote the tourism resources of Mainland provinces and cities along the Maritime Silk Road and support Portuguese-speaking countries in tourism personnel training.
In 2018, MGTO will also promote culture, sports and gastronomy with the launch of “Macao Year of Gastronomy”. It will also build maritime tourism, optimize the tourism environment and boost smart tourism development by harnessing innovative technology.
