During Golden Week, one of mainland China’s tourist peaks, Macao received 491,968 tourists, tripling the number reached in 2022. After the end of the imposed restrictions, tours increase.
Macao received nearly half a million visitors during the five days of the so-called Golden Week on May 1, one of mainland China’s tourist peaks, it was announced Thursday.
According to data released by the Public Security Police Corps (CPSP), the Chinese special administrative region hosted 491,968 tourists between April 29 and May 3.
The peak was reached at Sundayday in which Macao received 133,911 visitors, the highest daily number since the beginning of 2020, before the start of the pandemic.
The daily average number of tourists was close to 100,000, more than triple the number in the same period in 2022, when some major Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, faced lockdowns due to Covid-19 outbreaks.
Tourism in Macau continues to grow, even with the pandemic
During the first three days of the holiday on May 1, 2019, the city received 531,503 visitors, a daily average of more than 177,000.
The data was also well above forecast carried out last week by the Director of Tourist Services, María Helena de Senna Fernandes: an average of 70,000 visitors per day.
On Wednesday, the vice president of the Macau Association of Tourism Agencies told a press conference that Golden Week was being better than expectations.
Tang Ka Man revealed that about 300 organized trips they had come from mainland China to Hong Kong and Macao for the holidays.
At the same press conference, Macao Hotel Association Vice President Wong Lai Mei said hotel occupancy was, on average, 85%similar to 2019, and that room prices were even 2% above pre-pandemic levels.
However, on April 15, the president of the Macao Hotel Association, Luís Heredia, told TDM public television that about 15% of the rooms would remain closed during the May 1 holiday due to lack of hand of construction work.
According to the CPSP, almost 2.7 million people crossed the borders of the territory during the five days, the majority through Portas do Cerco, in the north of the Macao peninsula.
Macao, which, like China, followed the zero covid policy, announced in mid-December the gradual cancellation of most prevention and containment measures, after almost three years of strict restrictions.
On February 6, China lifted all restrictions due to the covid-19 pandemic on travel to Hong Kong and Macao, allowing organized tours to the two cities to resume.
Source: Observadora
