Macau recorded 30.2 million visitors in the first nine months of the year, a year-on-year growth of 17 per cent, the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) announced on Tuesday.
Same-day visitors accounted for 52.7 per cent of all visitor arrivals between January and September. While the number of same-day visitors rose 30.6 per cent, the number of overnight visitors increased a mere 4.9 per cent.
Visitors’ average length of stay stood at 1.2 days.
Mainlanders, Hongkongers and Taiwanese accounted for 71 per cent, 18.4 per cent and 2.7 per cent of the total number of visitor arrivals respectively. Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan visitors rose 17.7 per cent, 22.3 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively.
South Koreans continued to be Macau’s number-one foreign visitor segment, rising 0.4 per cent to 609,833, or 2.0 per cent of all visitor arrivals.
According to the Macau Post Daily, in the first nine months, Macau recorded 151,518 visitors from the US, 64,475 from Australia, 55,379 from Canada, and 44,201 from the UK.
In September, 2.76 million visitor arrivals were recorded, up 8.0 per cent year-on-year, when same-day visitors increased 20.4 per cent to 1.39 million, while overnight visitors dropped 2.3 per cent.
Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) Director Maria Helena Senna Fernandes predicted recently that the number of visitor arrivals will reach nearly 40 million this year, which would be a new record and an increase of almost 440 per cent from 1999, when the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) was established.
