MACAU, CHINA. In what was seen as the final year of pandemic-related travel curbs, Macau’s tourism sector continued to slow in 2022, with the number of visitors falling by -26% year-on-year to 5.7 million, according to the Macau Statistics and Census Service. However, following the 8 January 2023 lifting of travel restrictions, the Lunar New Year holidays saw a welcome spike in visitors to the Special Administrative Region and gaming hub.
Over the three-day 21-23 January holiday period, Macau saw 154,273 visitors entering from across the borders, up by +341.8% from the first three days of last year’s holiday. That is still a far cry from the pre-pandemic level in 2019, when arrivals reached 400,710 in the equivalent three days. Of this year’s total 84,505 entered from Mainland China, while 59,721 came from Hong Kong.
Last year’s number equated to just 14.4% of the 39.4 million tourist arrivals in 2019, before international travel came to a halt in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to the travel constraints Mainland China (historically the prime source market) generated the overwhelming share of visitor numbers with 5.1 million arrivals. Some 1.68 million of them travelled via the Individual Visit Scheme.
Macau received a mere 513,447 visitors from Hong Kong, a traditionally key source market and 67,303 from Taiwan. Both are now set to post sharp increases in visitors to Macau. 
*Camille Bersola, based in Manila, formerly hosted television news and current affairs Teledifusão De Macau from 2015 to 2021.
