Visitor arrivals in Macao dropped by approximately 80% to 260,000 during Spring Festival Golden Week

According to preliminary statistics, Macao welcomed around 260 thousand visitor arrivals (non-resident employees and students excluded) during the seven-day Spring Festival Golden Week of Mainland China (24 to 30 January), down by 78.3% over the corresponding period of last year.

In response to the outbreak of novel coronavirus, the Spring Festival holidays of Mainland China has been extended to 2 February. The below preliminary statistics are based on the seven-day Spring Festival Golden Week (24 to 30 January).

During the Spring Festival Golden Week, visitors from the Greater China markets decreased by 79.4% year-on-year to 235,000, which accounted for 90.1% of total visitor arrivals. Among them, 149,000 visitors came from Mainland China, accounting for 57.2% of total visitor arrivals, a drop by 83.3%. The number of Hong Kong visitors reached to around 76,000 with a decrease of 66.7%, whereas visitor arrivals from Taiwan region diminished by 53.5% to 10,000. Meanwhile, international visitor arrivals dropped by 56.2% year-on-year to approximately 26,000 in total.

The outbreak of novel coronavirus has impacted travel and led to a decrease of 78.3% in visitor arrivals during this year’s Spring Festival Golden Week, among which the major visitor source market – Mainland China has dropped by more than 80%, while visitors from Hong Kong, Taiwan region and international markets all reduced by half.

Up to date, the supply of all existing hotels and guest houses has reached a total of 41,148 rooms in Macao. Industry figures revealed that local hotel establishments (hotels and guest houses) registered an average occupancy rate of 52.9% during the Golden Week, which decreased 43.8 percentage points from last year.

According to figures provided by industry operators, five-star hotels recorded an average occupancy rate of 55.3%, down by 42.3 percentage points; four-star hotels registered 48.3%, dropped by 46.7 percentage points; three-star hotels 51.7%, down by 46.9 percentage points; two-star hotels 47.6%, down by 39.6 percentage points; guest houses 40.6%, dropped by 40.5 percentage points.

The average room rate of hotel establishments (hotels and guest houses) in Macao increased by 5.8% to 2,029.7 patacas during the Golden Week. For five-star hotels, the average room rate increased by 9.4% to 2,356.0 patacas; for four-star hotels, down by 5.3% to 1,514.2 patacas; for three-star hotels, down by 2.6% to 1,472.2 patacas; for two-star hotels, down by 22.2% to 999.2 patacas; for guest houses, down by 10.0% to 792.4 patacas.