China Travel

Visitor arrivals in Macao surge threefold during Spring Festival holiday 2023/2/10 source: Print

Visitor arrivals in China's Macao Special Administrative Region surged 297 percent year-on-year during the week-long Spring Festival holiday that ended on Friday, the Macao Government Tourism Office said on Sunday.

This year's Chinese New Year holiday was the first "Golden Week" holiday after Macao SAR eased inbound travel restrictions in early January, dropping the nucleic acid test requirement for passengers entering the region from the Chinese mainland, the Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan region.

Macao recorded 451,000 visitor arrivals in total during the holiday, with 165,000 from Hong Kong, and 265,000 from the mainland, surpassing the government's expectations, the office said.

On Jan 24, the third day of the Lunar New Year, or the Year of the Rabbit, Macao welcomed over 90,000 visitors, the highest single-day record since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

Industry figures showed the average hotel occupancy rate in Macao reached 85.7 percent during the "Golden Week" holiday, a year-on-year increase of 22.4 percent, with the hotel occupancy rate on Jan. 24 reaching 92.1 percent, the highest among those days, the office said.

"We have seen much more tourists this year compared with the previous years, and the tourists are younger. The hotel occupancy rate reached nearly 90 percent, with several hotels fully booked. I wish all industries flourishing in Macao in the Year of the Rabbit," said Andy Wu Keng Kuong, chairman of the Macao Travel Industry Council.

The office has been dedicated to promoting Macao as an attractive tourist destination, unfolding a variety of festive celebrations including the street tour of a more than 200-meter-long "dancing golden dragon," dazzling floats and passionate performances along main roads, and glittering fireworks that lit up the night sky above the sea.


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