The scale of the pandemic’s damage to Macau was revealed in a new report from the government showing that visitation plunged from 2019 to 2020 by 85 percent.
Date released by the Statistics and Census Service show inbound tourism for the year at just shy of 5.9 million, down from more than 39 million in 2019.
Overnight stays totaled a little over 2.8 million, but nearly half of those were recorded in January, before the Covid crisis hit.
On the plus side, the average daily stay was up by four hours to 1.4 days, while overnight stays lengthened by 14 hours to 2.8 days, although some of the increases were due to travel restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the pandemic on both sides of the border with mainland China.
Arrivals from the mainland totaled 4.75 million for the year, down from 27.9 million in 2019, an 83 percent decline. Neighboring Guangdong province accounted for 2.75 million visits, 1.41 million of them accomplished with visas obtained through China’s Individual Visit Scheme, which permits personal travel to the territory on a repeat basis.
The IVS, which was suspended because of the pandemic from late January until well into September, accounted for 1.87 million entries in all, down by more than 85 percent.
