Macau’s Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) has revealed the SAR saw a total of 5,700,339 visitor arrivals in 2022, down 26.0% year-on-year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2022 figure compares to 7.7 million arrivals in 2021 and a record 39.4 million arrivals in 2019.
According to the DSEC, the number of overnight visitors last year fell 32.8% to 2,484,028 while same-day visitors fell 19.8% to 3,216,311. The average length of stay of visitors also declined by 0.1 days year-on-year to 1.5 days.
Of the 5.7 million visitors in 2022, 5,105,935 were from mainland China of which 1,681,823 travelled via the Individual Visit Scheme. Visitors from Hong Kong tallied just 513,447 while there were 67,303 arrivals from Taiwan 67,303.
The final 2022 tally came after Macau welcomed 389,390 visitors in December, down 52.6% year-on-year although 6.2% higher than November.
That figure is expected to soar in January, however, after authorities dropped almost all border restrictions for visitors on 8 January, prompting ferry and bus services from Hong Kong to resume for the first time in three years.
