April visitation to Macau was up 0.7% year on year to 2,398,340, according to official figures released today.
The result represented a 0.5% improvement over March. Year-to-date visitation is up 1.6% to 9,474,782.
Mainland China, the largest source of visitation, was up 10.4% in April and is up nearly 6% YTD. Guangdong province as usual accounted for the largest share of mainland visitation at 45%. Mainland visitors travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) rose by 13.4% year on year to 613,876.
Visitations from Hong Kong and Taiwan were down 4.7% and 4.6%, respectively, on a year-to-date basis through April to 2,262,993 and 302,195.
Visitation could dip in May as a result of heavy rainfall that has lashed southern China over the last few weeks. The storms have brought severe flooding and landslides, with Guangdong especially hard hit. The province reported 36 weather-related deaths and 10 people missing this week. Another 34 deaths were reported earlier this month.
Macau experienced the heaviest day of rain on Tuesday in more than 20 years. Large parts of the city were flooded, and motor vehicle traffic was brought to a standstill, including in and around the Border Gate with the neighboring mainland city of Zhuhai.
All flights at Zhuhai International Airport were suspended on Tuesday night, according to Union Gaming Research Macau.
Hong Kong and Shenzhen were similarly hard-hit. Several inbound and outbound flights at Hong Kong International were cancelled while others experienced delays of up to two hours, UGRM reported.
