Visitors from Hong Kong help to drive Macau’s tourism recovery
- Gambling hub records 2.85 million visitors from Hong Kong during first five months of year, more than 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels
- Government official says tourists spending three times more than they did before Covid-19
Macau Government Tourism Office director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes on Friday said the city received 14.25 million visitors between January and June, about 60 per cent of the number for the same period before Covid-19 emerged in 2020.
“We hope it can fully recover by the end of this year,” de Senna Fernandes said, referring to arrival numbers.
During a visit to Hong Kong, de Senna Fernandes noted that the number of arrivals from the city had reached more than 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, even though they only made up about 20 per cent of travellers to Macau.
In comparison, the number of tourists from mainland China, who make up about 70 per cent of the city’s visitors, was at only 50 to 60 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. Taiwanese and overseas visitors were slower to return, with their numbers at just 20 per cent of the levels before 2020.
Visitors on average spent about 3,000 patacas (US$372), mostly on shopping, compared with just over 1,000 patacas before the Covid-19 pandemic.