MACAU, CHINA. Highlighting an accelerating recovery in its tourism sector, visitor arrivals to Macau reached almost 2 million in March, representing an increase of +271% against the same period in 2022. That is according to the latest figures released by the Statistics and Census Service.
The March performance was +22.8% higher than in February, when the Special Administrative Region welcomed almost 1.6 million visitors, following the opening of its borders in January after nearly three years of travel restrictions.
The numbers for March stand at 58% of those recorded in pre-pandemic 2019, when visitor arrivals hit almost 3.4 million.
Mainland China continued to be the top source market in the month, with 1,242,358 visitors, up by +164.9% year-on-year. This included 720,052 tourists travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme, an increase of +690.4% against the same period of 2022.
Hong Kong came in second with 622,304 followed by Taiwan with 26,645, up by +1,077.2% and +447.5% year-on-year, respectively.
In the first three months of 2023, the Asian gaming hub saw visitor arrivals grow by +163.7% year-on-year to almost 5 million. ✈
