Visitor arrivals and hotel occupancy rate in Macao both rise in Spring Festival Golden Week 2022

Macao joyfully welcomes visitors during Spring Festival Golden Week

Lasting from 31^st January to 6^th February, the seven-day Spring Festival Golden Week of Mainland China has come to an end. The preliminary statistics show that Macao welcomed over 110,000 visitor arrivals during the Spring Festival Golden Week while the average occupancy rate of local hotels was 63.8%.

Visitor arrivals increased by 25.4% during Spring Festival holidays

The 3^rd day of Lunar New Year sets the highest daily record

Impacted by the pandemic situation in neighboring regions at the beginning of this year, Macao tightened its pandemic control and prevention measures implemented at the ports of entry between Zhuhai and Macao. As the pandemic situation in neighboring regions moves towards stability before the Spring Festival holidays, the related pandemic control and prevention measures were relaxed, in addition to ensuing Chinese New Year festivities, including the Golden Dragon Parade, Parade for Celebration of the Year of the Tiger, and fireworks shows, the visitor arrivals hit 113,699 during the Spring Festival Golden Week this year, which increased by 25.4% compared with the Spring Festival Golden Week in 2021.

On the third day of Lunar New Year (3 February), visitor arrivals reached nearly 22,000, setting the highest daily record in this year’s Spring Festival Golden Week.

Figures provided by industry operators revealed that local hotel establishments (hotels, apartment hotels and economical accommodation establishments) saw an average occupancy rate of 63.8% during the Spring Festival Golden Week, a year-on-year increase of 15.2 percentage points. Until 31 January, the supply of local hotels and economical accommodation establishments has reached a total of 44,235 rooms.

Occupancy rate of hotel establishments up by 15.2 percentage points

Industry figures show that the average occupancy rate of 5-Star hotels was 70.3%, up by 19.3 percentage points. The average occupancy rate of 4-Star hotels was 53.5%, up by 3.6 percentage points. The average occupancy rate of 3-Star hotels was 59.2%, up by 14.0 percentage points. The average occupancy rate of 2-Star hotels was 31.6%, up by 9.2 percentage points. The average occupancy rate of apartment hotels was 60.0%, down 6.8 percentage points, whereas the average occupancy rate of economical accommodation establishments increased by 13.1 percentage points to 44.1%.

Room rate of hotel establishments decreased

The average room rate of hotel establishments (hotels and economical accommodation establishments) in Macao was about 1,096.0 patacas during the Spring Festival Golden Week, a year-on-year decline of 11.8%. The average room rates of 5-Star and 4-Star hotels were around 1,191.0 patacas and 642.5 patacas respectively, down 18.4% and 12.4% respectively. The average room rates of 3-Star and 2-Star hotels were around 580.0 patacas and 189.9 patacas respectively, a decrease of 19.5% and 8.5%. The average room rate of local apartment hotels was around 4,474.9 patacas, up by 0.2%. The average room rate of economical accommodation establishments was around 167.5 patacas, which stood the same as last year.

Promotion for pandemic prevention and stationed community guiding service

During the Spring Festival Golden Week, MGTO has leveraged different channels to inform visitors various information about pandemic prevention, such as posting pandemic prevention guidelines on MGTO’s website, publicizing information on pandemic prevention at MGTO’s Tourist Information counters at different ports of entry, calling for attention on pandemic prevention on MGTO’s Wechat and Weibo accounts. The Office also reminds travel industry operators to carry out pandemic preventive measures in accordance with related advices and guidelines issued by the Health Bureau against COVID-19, meanwhile, hotel establishments and trade associations continue to help spread messages about pandemic prevention among visitors.

In addition, visitors and residents were provided with free stationed guiding service at Rua dos Ervanários, St. Augustine’s Square, Taipa Houses, and the Village of Ká Hó.

Rigorous patrols

During the Spring Festival Golden Week, the Office conducted patrols at various tourist spots, ports of entry and districts, besides overseeing measures taken in hotel establishments against the pandemic, with MGTO inspectors standing by round-the-clock. MGTO’s tourism hotline (853) 2833 3000 maintained its 24-hour operator service.

Between 31^st January to 6^th February, MGTO conducted a total of 77 inspections, targeting at major ports of entry, tourist spots, as well as those pandemic preventive measures taken in hotel establishments. During inspections, no sign of irregularities was discovered.

During the Spring Festival Golden Week, MGTO received eight visitor enquiries or complaints mainly about taxi, shopping, charges and more.

Promotion to boost arrivals

Aiming at the Mainland visitor market, the scheme to expand visitor source will be implemented this year, partnering with airline, e-commerce platforms and online travel platforms to provide Mainland visitors with a series of special travel offers on air tickets, hotel accommodation and other trip experiences in Macao so as to enhance Macao’s competitive edges after the pandemic. The Office will also strengthen its promotional efforts on social media, plan to conduct a number of programs that attract visitors to Macao after the Spring Festival, organize an array of roadshows in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, organize “Macao Week” mega roadshow series and seminars on tourism and MICE in Mainland cities which are major contributors of visitors to Macao, highlighting Macao’s image as a safe and quality destination, bolstering travelers’ confidence, striving for more visitations from the Mainland to Macao, steering the tourism industry towards recovery and generating greater momentum to move other industries forward.