The total number of visitors to enter Macau in 2020 is looking likely to fall below 6 million, of which around half arrived in January alone, according to Director of the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes.
The figure would represent a decline of around 85% compared with 2019, when Macau welcomed a record 39.4 million visitors between January and December.
“I don’t think we will reach 6 million this year … it was a very difficult year,” Ms Senna Fernandes told reporters at the Global Tourism Economy Forum in comments published by Macau News Agency.
“January was a very good month with 3 million visitors but the remaining 11 months didn’t even match that amount.”
Macau reported 2.85 million visitors in January but visitor numbers began to decline significantly towards the end of the month as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread across the region. Macau’s casinos were also ordered closed for 15 days from 5 February with most transport routes in and out of Macau closed from March.
Visitation has since picked up to between 18,000 and 20,000 per day, Senna Fernandes said, aided by the lifting of most border restrictions with mainland China and the partial resumption of the Individual Visit Scheme.
However, the Macau SAR Government is not anticipating any significant jump in visitor numbers over the upcoming holiday period.
“Christmas and New Year is not traditionally a travelling period for mainland Chinese so we don’t anticipate a very high number of bookings,” she said.
“But we would hope that there will be more retail shopping. We are having the Macau Shopping Festival at the time and we hope this kind of activity can stimulate more spending in Macau and attract more visitors.”
