Macau Sees 1.3 Million Visitors in January After Travel Restrictions Lift

The Lunar New Year and Macau's lifting of its travel restrictions early this year have seen a surge of visitor arrivals in the special administrative region, most of which hailing from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, among others.

According to information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) via the Government Information Bureau yesterday, Macau's visitors rose by 101.3% year-on-year and 259% month-on-month to a total of 1,397,748 visitors in January 2023.

Overnight visitors and same-day visitors also increased to 816,199 and 581,549 or by 234.5% and 29.1% respectively, year-on-year. The average length of stay went up, too, to 1.6 days, with same-day visitors staying 0.2 day longer whereas overnight visitors' stays dropped by 0.8 day to 2.6 days.

The DSEC also reported that visitors mainly came from mainland China, with the number of tourists rising by 54.5% year-on-year to 991,641. Those travelling to Macau under the Individual Visit Scheme also increased to 321.6% or 707,360. Tourists from Hong Kong (356,958) and Taiwan (18,868) also hiked by 704.3% and 139%, respectively. Visitors also hailed from Zhuhai (144,262) and Guangzhou (136,594).

When it came to checkpoint arrivals, visitors mainly came to Macau by land, which also increased by 82.8% year-on-year to 1,152,936 last month. Of this figure, majority or 51.4% entered via the checkpoint of Border Gate (592,191), 23.2% from the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, and 21.1% through Hengqin port.

Arrivals via sea and air also surged by 1,052% and 87.9% year-on-year to 149,649 and 95,163, respectively, as per DSEC.