Only 3.8% of Macau hotel guests in the first six months of the year were foreigners, according to information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), due in part to the slow return of international air travel since borders reopened in January.
While Macau authorities are aiming to reach at least 10% foreign visitation in the future, DSEC figures show that just 229,500 of the 6,049,000 people to stay in Macau’s hotels in 1H23 were from overseas countries, of which around 40,000 were from South Korea.
By contrast, 4,354,000 came from mainland China, representing 72.0% of all guest stays.
Macao Government Tourism Office director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes stated earlier this week, “It will take some time for the number of flights to Macau to return to pre-pandemic levels,” adding that the MGTO is working with airlines such as Air Asia and Air Busan to offer airfare concessions.
The DSEC said Thursday that Macau’s hotel occupancy rate for the first half of 2023 reached 78.0% – up 40.3 percentage points compared with the same period in 2022.
The MGTO had previously announced an occupancy rate of 82.0% although this only covered the 44 member hotels of the Macau Hotel Association. The DSEC’s figures, which also show June’s occupancy rate rising by 52.3 percentage points to 84.3%, take into account all 131 hotels open in Macau during H1. The number of rooms available increased by 15.7% to 43,000 rooms.
The total number of hotel guests rose by 170% year-on-year to 1,142,000 in June, of which around 816,000 were from mainland China, 196,000 from Hong Kong and 24,000 from Taiwan, representing increases of 160%, 900% and 590% respectively. There were also 44,000 local Macau residents staying in hotels, representing a decrease of 43.6%. The average length of stay decreased by 0.1 nights year-on-year to 1.7 nights.
