The eight-day Spring Festival Golden Week (10 – 17 February) has come to an end in the Mainland. Visitor figures fair better than expected. According to the preliminary statistics, Macao registered nearly 1.36 million visitor arrivals cumulatively throughout this Spring Festival Golden Week. On the 3rd day of Chinese New Year (12 February), the number of visitors hit the second highest single-day record. Average daily visitor arrivals neared 170,000, which rose by over 1.6-fold year on year and almost reached the level in 2019. The average hotel occupancy rate topped 95%. The figures mirror the positive trend of tourism recovery.
Increase in Mainland, Hong Kong and international visitor arrivals
During Chinese New Year, the SAR Government, tourism businesses and community organizations presented an array of festive events, which, in addition to diverse promotional measures, special offers and traditional festive ambience, attracted visitors from near and far to Macao for a memorable vacation and experience of “tourism +”. The market thrived and propelled tourism and economic growth in Macao.
The surge in visitor arrivals is well beyond expectations over this Spring Festival Golden Week. Preliminary figures indicate that visitor arrivals reached 1.358 million in total during the Spring Festival Golden Week. Among all, Mainland visitor arrivals reached 1.035 million, which constitutes 76.2% of total visitor arrivals. The average daily volume of Mainland visitors exceeded 129,000, a year-on-year surge of 243.0%. Visitor arrivals from Hong Kong reached 253,000, while the average daily volume of Hong Kong visitors neared 32,000, a surge of 34.6%. The average daily volume of international visitors topped 6,600, up by 168.8% year on year.
Average daily visitor arrivals near the level in 2019
Single-day visitor arrivals reach the second highest record on 3rd day of Chinese New Year
Average daily visitor arrivals saw a remarkable increase during the Golden Week and reached about 170,000 (169,725), which neared the level (171,702) in 2019 and surged by 163.8% year on year. Single-day visitor arrivals trended upward steadily from the 1st to 3rd day of Chinese New Year (10 – 12 February) to peak at 217,541 on the 3rd day of Chinese New year (12 February), which not just exceeded the all-time high in 2023 but also created the second highest single-day record ever since the start of single-day statistics.
Average daily volume of Mainland visitors exceeds the level in 2019
Hong Kong and international visitor arrivals resume by 98% and 79%
Provisional figures show that the average daily volume of Mainland visitors reached 129,000 during the Spring Festival Golden Week, which exceeded the level in 2019 by a recovery rate of 101.3%. The average daily volumes of Hong Kong and international visitors were about 32,000 and 6,600, which rebounded to 97.8% and 78.5% of the level in 2019. The figures suggest that visitor arrivals are trending towards significant recovery.
Average hotel occupancy rate reaches 95% overall and peaks at nearly 98% on 4th day of Chinese New Year
According to figures provided by industry operators, local hotel establishments saw an average occupancy rate of 95.2% during the Spring Festival Golden Week, a year-on-year increase of nearly 10 percentage points. The hotel occupancy rate peaked at 97.9% on the 4th day of Chinese New Year (13 February).
The average room rate of Macao’s hotel establishments (including hotels, apartment hotels and economical accommodation establishments) was around 1,922 patacas during the Golden Week, a year-over-year growth of 23.4%.
Step up patrols to safeguard quality
Between 10 and 17 February, MGTO conducted 103 inspections at various ports of entry, tourist attractions, shopping areas, hotel establishments and so forth without discovery of irregularities. The Office also carried out collaborative inspections with the Public Security Police Force to fight against illegal accommodation and sealed one apartment allegedly operated as illegal accommodation. MGTO’s inspectors stood by round the clock while MGTO’s Tourist Information counters tended to visitors’ enquiries. The tourism hotline (853) 2833 3000 maintained its 24-hour operator service as usual. During the aforementioned period, MGTO received 30 enquires and complaints from visitors, mainly about hotel reservation, service attitude, hygiene, transportation, catering, shopping and other areas. MGTO has followed up with or transferred the cases to the departments concerned for handling.
Present spectacular festivities as part of “Happy Chinese New Year” celebrations
During Chinese New Year, MGTO organized the “2024 Chinese New Year Activities”, “Celebrations of the 25th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Macao SAR – Parade for Celebration of the Year of the Dragon 2024” and “Chinese New Year Fireworks Displays”. The three events were listed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as part of the “Happy Chinese New Year” celebrations this year. The Office also supported other outreach activities.
The themed webpage of “Macao Lunar New Year Celebrations 2024” (https://www.macaotourism.gov.mo/en/article/cny/celebrations-2024) introduces a wide range of wonderful festive activities organized by governmental entities such as MGTO, Cultural Affairs Bureau, Sports Bureau and Municipal Affairs Bureau, as well as tourism businesses during Chinese New Year, along with promotional videos for different festivities. Residents and visitors can conveniently learn about various local Chinese New Year festivities at one stop.
Macao Grand Prix Museum abounds with visitors during Spring Festival
The Macao Grand Prix Museum (the “Museum”) welcomed 8,361 visitors during the Spring Festival Golden Week, a 1.6-fold rise compared with last Spring Festival Golden Week. The number of museum visitors peaked at 1,417 on the 5th day of Chinese New Year, the highest single-day record during the Golden Week.
The Museum also featured special activities including the golden dragon dance performance on the 1st day of Chinese New Year (10 February) and the “Explore the Guia Circuit” Bus Tour once again, which engaged 561 participants in total.
Promote temporary pedestrian zone in Taipa Village
In line with the launch of the temporary pedestrian zone in Taipa Village during Chinese New Year, MGTO stepped up online promotional measures including a series of online promotions on MGTO’s social media platforms and production of promotional videos. 10 Mainland and 5 overseas KOLs were also invited to carry out promotions through live streams, graphic and informative posts, videos and so on. In addition, the Office reminded travel agencies to pay attention to traffic diversion measures at the temporary pedestrian zone and the arrangements for disembarkation/embarkation of tour bus passengers. Staffers were arranged to provide assistance on site during rush hours, to enhance visitors’ experience in the district.
The “2024 Chinese New Year Activities” were extended to Tapia Village, where part of the community roadshow was held. There were other arranged performances such as an encounter with Macao Tourism Mascot MAK MAK, distribution of golden ingots by the three Gods of Happiness, Prosperity and Longevity, and Portuguese-style performance, to share festive joy with residents and visitors.
Diverse promotional initiatives to attract visitors from different markets
Riding on the robust tourism situation during the Spring Festival, MGTO forges ahead with an array of online-offline initiatives to spotlight Macao as a travel destination, including promotional posts and live streams on social media. Travel KOLs are invited to promote the destination by posts and live streams on their channels, while advertisements are released on TV channels and so forth. Offline promotional events have been planned and lined up for the latter half of this year. An all-rounded marketing campaign is conducted to showcase the year-round calendar of colorful “tourism +” elements and appeal to visitors from different markets.
Capitalizing on the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Macao SAR this year, the Office is presenting 250,000 prizes including special offers on air tickets, cross-border transportation, hotel accommodation, dining and entertainment, show tickets and so forth, which have been launched successively through different channels and collaborative partners in international markets to attract more visitors to Macao.
