December 2018 was a fantastic month for Macau with visitor arrivals clocking up a new monthly record, a 16.9% growth year-on-year, taking the total to just shy of 3.57 million.
This helped shore up a record-breaking 2018, when 35.8 million visitors arrived, a leap of 9.8%. Those popping in for the day numbered 17.31 million, up 12.7%, while overnight visitors accounted for 18.49 million, up 7.2%.
Mainland Chinese made up the lion’s share, with 25.26 million visitors, showing an impressive increase of 13.8%, followed by Hong Kong at 6.32 million and Taiwan at 1.06 million, with more modest growths of 2.6% and 0.1% respectively. The US, Australia, and the UK also recorded growth.
Interestingly, land arrivals leapt 18.9% to 22.15 million, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HKZMB), which opened October 24, bringing in 1.05 million, and those arriving via the Macau International Airport up 19.9% at 3.27 million.
Visitor spending was also up between 5% and 6% with three- to five-star hotel rates at an average of US$168.80, and local hotels reaching an average occupancy of over 90%, up 3% year-on-year.
Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) director Helena de Senna Fernandes anticipates a huge surge of arrivals during Chinese New Year (CNY).
“This will be the first CNY after the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, so we expect the increase to be higher than in previous years,” she said.