Macau’s overseas-visitor tally down 9.8pct y-o-y in August: govt

The tally of Macau’s international visitors fell 9.8 percent year-on-year in August, to 171,679, or 3.8 percent of the month’s nearly 4.48-million visitors. The latest numbers took the eight-month international-visitor figure to just under 1.77 million, or 6.1 percent of the total for the year up to August 31. The aggregate of August tourists from the Chinese mainland went up 9.3 percent from a year earlier, to just above 3.56 million, or 79.5 percent of all visitors. That is according to data issued on Friday by the city’s Statistics and Census Service. In the overseas segments, the August aggregate from the Philippines (31,282) and Indonesia (11,106) fell 18.5 percent and 16.9 percent respectively. It has been widely reported by investment analysts that fuel price rises in the Philippines – linked to the Middle East conflict between the United States and Iran – have dented consumer confidence and spending by people from that country. Macau’s August arrivals from Malaysia (8,161) rose 2.1 percent. The visitor tally from India (6,430) dipped 17.6 percent year-on-year. South Korea’s contribution (30,738) and that of Japan (11,464) decreased by 12.6 percent and 31.1 percent respectively. In the long-haul market, the tally from the United States (11,713) edged down 0.4 percent from a year earlier. For the core Chinese-mainland market, those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme exit visa system for independent travellers reached nearly 2.02 million, up 12.7 percent. Visitors from neighbouring Hong Kong fell by 5.6 percent, to 643,445, or 14.4 percent of the August total. The volume of visitors from Taiwan (101,282) went up 13.7 percent year-on-year. Macau’s August same-day visitor total rose 11.7 percent year-on-year, to just over 2.85 million, or 63.7 percent of all arrivals. The cohort of overnight visitors, at nearly 1.65 million, dropped 2.4 percent. August average length of stay shortened by 0.1 day year-on-year to 1.0 day, with that of overnight visitors (2.3 days) remaining unchanged. The official visitor figures for Macau covering the first eight months this year reached just over 28.96 million, according to the data. Last week, the city’s Public Security Police – the force monitoring the city’s immigration checkpoints – had already said the year’s total up to 11am on September 11 had reached 30 million. Friday’s statistics bureau data revealed that for the first eight months of this year, the same-day visitor total grew 13.6 percent, to just above 17.85 million, or 61.6 percent of all tourist arrivals. Overnight visitors for the calendar year to August 31 totalled just over 11.11 million, down 0.6 percent.