Macau recorded a 30.7% year-on-year increase in visitor arrivals to 7,705,943 in 2021, although the figure was still 80.0% lower than in 2019 due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The FY21 visitor arrival figure was aided by a reasonably strong finish to the year with 820,870 visitors in December – up 2.4% on November and 24.5% higher than in December 2020.
December’s tally included a 58.5% year-on-year increase in same-day visitors to 426,559 but only a slight 1.0% improvement in overnight visitation to 394,311. Average length of stay held steady at 1.5 days.
For the year as a whole, same-day visitors grew 30.4% to 4,009,143 and overnight visitors by 31.0% to 3,696,800 with the average length of stay up 0.2 days from 2020 to 1.6 days.
With borders closed to most of the world, the vast majority of visitors in 2021, a total of 7,045,058, came from mainland China – up 48.2% year-on-year – of which 2,449,128 utilized the Individual Visit Scheme. Visitors from Hong Kong (589,014) and Taiwan (70,950) fell 30.1% and 31.9% respectively year-on-year, with a mere 1,191 visitors (an average of just over 3 visitors per day) coming from outside the mainland China/Hong Kong/Taiwan area.
By mode of arrival, 7,003,735 in 2021 entered by land with 81% of those via the Border Gate (5,669,839). Arrivals by air and sea totalled 501,387 and 200,821 respectively.
