Macau’s Chinese New Year holiday is off to a strong start with 121,356 visitor arrivals recorded on the first day of the eight-day holiday period, according to information from the Public Security Police Force.
Saturday’s tally represents a 274% improvement over the corresponding day in 2023 and an 88.7% increase over last year’s daily average. The 2023 Chinese New Year Golden Week was the first since Macau’s borders reopened just weeks earlier on 8 January.
Of the 121,356 visitor arrivals on Saturday, 82,674 were from mainland China – up 364% year-on-year – while another 27,789 were from Hong Kong, up 127%.
By mode of arrivals, 39,733 entered Macau via the Border Gate, 32,602 via the HKZM Bridge and 17,57 via the Hengqin Port. There were also almost 20,000 arrivals by ferry and 9,428 by plane.
The Macao Government Tourism Office said last week it expects around 960,000 arrivals during Golden Week at an average of 120,000 per day, with the third and fourth days of the holiday period tipped to be the peak.
There were only seven days of holidays during CNY in 2023, with the total number of visitors reaching 451,000 or 64,429 per day. By comparison, in 2019, the seven-day holiday drew 1,213,487 visitors at an average of 173,355 per day.
