Macau’s 2026 arrivals may top 41mln, but overnighter segment lags so far: tourism boss

Macau’s visitor arrivals for full-year 2026 may exceed the local government’s 41-million forecast, though the overnighter segment has so far been “lagging” year-on-year compared to the 14.5 percent growth in day trippers witnessed in the nine months to September 30. So indicated Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, director of Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), when speaking to local media on the sidelines of a Thursday event. Aggregate visitor arrivals for the first nine months of this year reached approximately 32.18 million, representing an 8.5-percent year-on-year growth, per data from the Statistics and Census Service. In the January to September period, Macau’s volume of same-day trippers reached 19.78 million, up 14.5 percent year-on-year. Around 75.9 percent of that cohort – or 15.02 million – were Chinese-mainland consumers, representing a growth of 18.3 percent. During the same period, the city’s overnight visitors tallied nearly 12.40 million, a performance that was flat year-on-year. Ms Senna Fernandes mentioned in her Thursday comments, some sign of weaker performance in the overseas-visitor segment, citing “external uncertainties”, including the political instability in the Middle East. That was understood to be a reference to the conflict between United States and Iran, and the related squeeze on global energy supplies. Macau’s overseas-visitor arrivals appeared to be “peaking”, suggested China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Securities Ltd (CICC) in a recent memo on the Macau gaming sector. The brokerage had observed that year-on-year growth in Macau’s overseas arrivals had moderated from “teens” of percent in the first five months of this year, to single-digit decline since June. That was amid “muted performance of global equity markets”, and a high base of comparison, said the institution. Ms Senna Fernandes had mentioned the aggregate figure of 41 million for all visitors to Macau in 2026, in comments just before the Chinese New Year holiday in February.