• Korea continued to rank first among international markets with a robust growth of 32 per cent in 2017

Record Visitation Posted for Macao in 2017

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At Macao Government Tourism Office's (MGTO) Annual Press Conference on 17th January the Office announced that total visitor arrivals to Macao topped 32.6 million in 2017, up 5.4 per cent from the year before. International visitor arrivals grew by 6.2 per cent to reach a new record. Meanwhile, overnight-stay visitors surged year-on-year by almost ten per cent, accounting for 52.9 per cent of total visitor arrivals and setting a new record in terms of quantity and proportion.

Korea main international tourist source market

Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan region remained Macao's top three visitor source markets. The city welcomed over 29.4 million visitors from the Greater China markets, a rise of 5.3 per cent last year, of whom 22.1 million were from the Mainland, up 8.5 per cent, with 41 per cent from Guangdong Province. The figure includes 10.6 million visitors travelling on the Individual Visit Scheme, which constitutes 47.8 per cent of Mainland visitor arrivals. Visitor arrivals from Hong Kong and Taiwan region dipped 4 per cent and 1.3 per cent.

International visitor arrivals reached a new record of more than 3.1 million, accounting for 9.8 per cent of total visitor arrivals. Korea continued to rank first, contributing over 870000 visitors to Macao, with robust growth of 32 per cent in 2017. Japanese visitor arrivals climbed 9.4 per cent, while visitors from the Philippines and Indonesia rose by 7 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively.

Overnight-stay visitation reaches new high

Overnight-stay visitor arrivals exceeded same-day visitor arrivals last year, which had lasted for ten consecutive months since last March. The total of overnight-stay visitors rose by 9.9 per cent to more than 17.2 million, accounting for 52.9 per cent of total visitor arrivals with a year-on-year increase of 2.2 percentage points, breaking the record in terms of quantity of overnight-stay visitors and making a new record high in ten years in the proportion of visitors staying overnight compared to same-day visitors. The average length of stay stood at 2.1 days for overnight-stay visitors and 1.2 days for all visitors.

As at the end of 2017, there were 116 hotel establishments in Macao supplying a total of 37,901 rooms, a year-on-year increase of 0.7 per cent. The number includes 49 budget accommodation establishments offering 1736 rooms. The total of overnight guests in hotel establishments increased by 9.6 per cent to 13.1 million in 2017. The average occupancy rate of hotel establishments in Macao in 2017 was 86.9 per cent, a year-on-year increase of 3.6 percentage points. The average room rate of 3 to 5-star hotels last year was US$160.3, down 0.2 per cent.

Meanwhile, total visitor expenditure between January and September 2017 amounted to US$25.7 billion, marking period-on-period growth of 16.1 per cent.


MIA welcomes seven million passengers

Macau International Airport (MIA) welcomed a record new high of 7.16 million arriving and departing passengers in 2017, an increase of eight per cent compared to the preceding year. MIA handled in excess of 58000 aircraft movements, up 2.8 per cent compared to the year before. The total amount of airfreight cargo reached 37000 tones, increasing 14 per cent vis-a-vis the prior year, while the total movements of business jets reached 3078, a year-on-year increase of 12.71 per cent.

In 2017, passengers from Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia accounted for 43 per cent of total passengers while the Southeast Asia and Northern Asia markets increased by 10 per cent. The Taiwan region market remained stable and the Mainland China market increased by 15 per cent, respectively. A growth of 32 per cent of passengers taking low cost airlines was recorded.

Currently, MIA hosts 28 airline companies, with routes covering 45 waypoints located in Mainland China, Southeast Asia, Northern Asia and so forth. In 2017, MIA added four new airlines flying to Macao; namely, Lanmei Airlines, Indonesia AirAsia, Beijing Capital Airlines and JC Cambodia International Airlines. MIA also expanded the air network by adding seven routes to Changzhou, Jiangsu; Sihanoukville and Siem Reap, Cambodia; plus Jakarta and Bali, Indonesia and Johor Bahru, Malaysia, while inaugurating regular transit flights from Macao to Lisbon, Portugal via Beijing.