Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that total spending (excluding gaming expenses) of visitors in the fourth quarter of 2019 dropped by 11.8% year-on-year to MOP16.24 billion; total spending of overnight visitors (MOP12.57 billion) declined by 16.0% while that of same-day visitors (MOP3.67 billion) went up by 6.1%. For the whole year of 2019, total spending of visitors amounted to MOP64.08 billion, down by 8.0% year-on-year; total spending of overnight visitors (MOP49.96 billion) fell by 11.2% whereas that of same-day visitors (MOP14.12 billion) rose by 5.0%.
Per-capita spending of visitors went down by 4.3% year-on-year to MOP1,765 in the fourth quarter of 2019, marking a drop for five consecutive quarters since the fourth quarter of 2018; spending of overnight visitors (MOP2,883) reduced by 5.9% while that of same-day visitors (MOP759) rose by 11.9%. Visitors from Singapore and the Republic of Korea spent an average of MOP2,144 and MOP2,073 respectively, an upsurge of 25.4% and 31.8% year-on-year. Per-capita spending of visitors from mainland China (MOP2,014) decreased by 3.7%, spending of those from Hong Kong (MOP1,000) and Taiwan (MOP1,436) saw a decline.
For the whole year of 2019, per-capita spending of visitors fell by 16.5% year-on-year to MOP1,626, with spending of overnight visitors (MOP2,681) and same-day visitors (MOP680) dropping by 11.8% and 12.5% respectively.
Analysed by country/place, per-capita spending of Mainland visitors (MOP1,834) decreased by 18.2% year-on-year in 2019, with spending of those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme (MOP2,298) falling by 11.9%. Per-capita spending of visitors from Hong Kong (MOP954) and Taiwan (MOP1,377) dropped by 9.5% and 14.6% respectively, whereas spending of those from Singapore (MOP1,872) and the Republic of Korea (MOP1,731) recorded respective growth of 1.0% and 14.0%. As regards long-haul visitors, per-capita spending of those from Australia (MOP1,382) and the United States (MOP1,264) decreased year-on-year, while spending of those from the United Kingdom (MOP1,223) increased.
In terms of type of spending, per-capita shopping spending of visitors in 2019 reduced by 19.0% year-on-year to MOP743 (45.7% of per-capita spending), of which spending on cosmetics & perfume (MOP255) and local food products (MOP219) decreased by 8.8% and 11.8% respectively. Visitors spent an average of MOP422 on accommodation and MOP332 on food & beverage, a decline of 15.3% and 14.7% respectively. Analysed by main purpose of visit, per-capita spending of visitors coming for MICE events (MOP3,781) rose by 7.8% year-on-year, whereas spending of those coming for shopping (MOP2,415) and vacation (MOP2,268) fell by 7.8% and 11.1% respectively.
With respect to visitors’ comments collected in 2019, their satisfaction towards the various services and facilities in Macao registered increases to different extents compared to 2018. The proportions of visitors who were satisfied with the services of hotels (88.8%) and environmental hygiene (86.0%) grew by 0.2 percentage points and 1.6 percentage points respectively year-on-year. The share of visitors who complimented on public transport services (75.5%) surged by 4.4 percentage points year-on-year; however, 7.1% of the visitors considered that improvement was needed.