The tourism industry in Macau has recovered in 2023, returning 71.6 percent of its pre-pandemic levels in visitor arrivals.
According to data from the Statistics and Census Service, 28.2 million visitors were recorded in Macau, compared to 39.4 million in 2019, VisaGuide.World reports.
Macau also remains China’s main source market, representing 67.5 percent of the total, as more than 19 million visitors were recorded in 2023. In addition, the increase in visitor numbers reached 273.1 percent, while the number of visitors traveling under the Individual Visit Scheme was 10.6 million, increasing by 532.3 percent.
Some of the key developments in the tourism industry in China included Hong Kong, representing 25.5 percent of total visitors, reaching 7.1 million visitors, which is up by 1,301.5 percent compared to 2022 levels.
Moreover, Macau witnessed the return of international tourists in 2023, reaching 1.4 million arrivals in 2023, while the number of international visitors surged by 10,589.7 percent.
The positive recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in Mainland China reached 68.2 percent, while Hong Kong recovered its tourist arrivals by 97.8 percent, as Moodie Davitt Report shows.
December witnessed an extraordinary surge, with 2.9 million travelers arriving in Macau, marking a staggering 656 percent year-on-year increase. Mainland China dominated the scene with 1.9 million arrivals, increasing by a 483 percent surge.
Despite the tourism resurgence, Macau’s retail sector faced challenges. High-end retailers experienced a softening of spend, driven by a muted Chinese economy and a preference for non-shopping attractions.
In the third quarter of the year, retail sales values were down by 5.9 percent, with department stores and leather goods seeing 12.2 and 10.6 percent decreases, respectively. The sales volume index also dropped by 6.5 percent.
As compared with the third quarter of 2023, about 41.8 percent of the retailers envisaged sluggish business in the fourth quarter, 41.7 percent expected stable performance, and 16.5 percent anticipated a favorable outlook.
However, Chinese gastronomy saw an increased interest as the change in Chinese food products was up by 18 percent compared to the previous quarter. This rate was even higher compared to the same time last year – 439.9 percent more, while the cumulative result is that the interest for these products rose by 346.6 percent during this period.
In general, all retail sales had a positive cumulative result, except for communication equipment, which marked a 21.2 percent drop, and supermarkets, which saw a 3.9 percent decrease.