Macau (MNA) – The Macau SAR has received 16.2 per cent more visitors in October than a month before, and 7.9 per cent more visitors than a year earlier, totalling 2,88 million arrivals, the local Statistics and Census Services (DSEC) announced on Thursday.
DSEC noted the increase was mainly attributable to the prolonged holidays to celebrate China’s National Day and the Lunar Cake Festival.
In particular, tourists travelling on an individual basis amounted to 1.47 million and tourists travelling with a group totalled 1.41 million.
The average length of stay of visitors in the city in October was 1.2 days, similar to year before, with the length of stay of visitors travelling to Macau on an individual basis reaching 2.2 days, against 0.2 day for visitors in excursion groups.
In terms of origin, some 2.06 million visitors travelled to the MSAR from mainland China, a 12.8 per cent increase yearly. Of the total, 959,648 were visitors travelling on an individual basis, up 11.1 per cent year-on-year.
Visitors from the Mainland came mainly from the Guangdong Province (835,841), Hunan Province (96,789) and Fujian Province (77,490).
The number of visitors from the Republic of Korea climbed 54.5 per cent to 80,528, while the number of visitors from Hong Kong (465,912) and Taiwan (85,196) decreased 9.4 per cent and 2.1 per cent, respectively.
From outside Asia, the most important group of visitors came from the United States, amounting to 15,901.
In what regards the means of transportation, a total of 249,446 visitors chose to reach the city by air, representing a 24 per cent rise from the same month last year.
Yet, the majority of visitors or 1.70 million had access to the city by land – an annual increase of 8.7 per cent – of which some 1.48 million entered the MSAR through the Border Gate, located at the north end of the Macau peninsula.
By sea, the number of visitors amounted to 940,759, or 2.8 per cent more than a year before. Of the total, 579,094 arrived at the Outer Harbor ferry terminal, up 4.7 per cent year-on-year, and 361,665 visitors arrived at the Taipa Passenger Terminal, a.k.a. Pac On – a number similar to the same month of 2016, DESC noted.
Ten-month breakdown
In the first ten months of 2017, nearly 26.72 million people visited the MSAR, marking a 4.6 per cent increase when compared to the same period in 2016.
Of the total, some 14.11 million were tourists travelling on an individual basis while nearly 12.61 million reached the city in excursion arrangements, posting an increase of 10.4 per cent and a decrease of 1.2 per cent, respectively.
Visitor arrivals from mainland China accounted for 18.15 million on the first ten months of the year under review, up 7 per cent yearly.
Visitors from the Republic of Korea (724,637) increased 36.8 per cent, while visitors arriving from Hong Kong (5.12 million) and Taiwan (887,434) fell 3.5 per cent and 1 per cent, respectively.
