The 1^st October Golden Week (1^st – 7^th October) of Mainland China has come to an end. According to provisional statistics, Macao welcomed more than 980,000 visitors during the 1^st October Golden Week, registering a year-on-year rise of 11.5%.

Macao welcomed a total of 947,000 visitors from the Greater China markets throughout the 1^st October Golden Week, which constitutes 96.1% of total visitor arrivals to Macao and registered an increase of 13.0% from last year. Among them, the number of Mainland visitors rose by 9.4% to reach 798,000, which constitutes 81.1% of total visitor arrivals. Visitor arrivals from Hong Kong rose by 43.2% to 136,000, while visitor arrivals from Taiwan dropped by 4.7% to 12,000. As for international visitor markets, the number of visitors totaled 38,000, down 16.2%.

The surge in visitor arrivals during this 1^st October Golden Week met the expectations, which was possibly attributed to the inauguration of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, which further enhanced the regional transport network, and the rich diversity of local festivals and cultural events, e.g. the Macao International Fireworks Display Contest and the debutant edition of Art Macao as a mega international cultural and artistic event. The above factors all contributed a positive effect leading to the rise in visitor figures.

Rise in average occupancy rate of hotel establishments

According to figures provided by industry operators, local hotel establishments (hotels and guest houses) saw an average occupancy rate of 94.0% during the Golden Week, an increase of 2.0 percentage points. Up to date, the supply of local hotels and guest houses in operation has reached a total of 41,015 rooms.

Industry figures revealed that the average occupancy rate of 5-Star hotels was 95.2%, up 1.2 percentage points. The average occupancy rate of 4-Star hotels was 92.6%, up 2.5 percentage points. The average occupancy rate of 3-Star hotels was 94.7%, up 3.6 percentage points. The average occupancy rate of 2-Star hotels was 82.4%, up 9.5 percentage points, whereas the average occupancy rate of guest houses went down by 2.7 percentage points to 75.6%.

Decrease in average room rate of hotel establishments

The average room rate of hotel establishments (hotels and guest houses) in Macao was about 1,842.3 patacas during the Golden Week, a year-on-year decline of 5.1%. The average room rates of 5-Star and 4-Star hotels were around 2,235.5 patacas and 1,195.4 patacas respectively, down 1.5% and 22.7% respectively. The average room rates of 3-Star and 2-Star hotels were around 1,211.1 patacas and 941.8 patacas respectively, a decrease of 3.8% and 4.0%. The average room rate of local guest houses was around 700.5 patacas, down 6.7%.

Diverse measures to cater for public needs

Before and during the past Golden Week, Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) actively prepared for the approach of the peak period by carrying out an array of tasks as follows: advising visitors via mobile text message to pay attention to various concerns and leverage the “smart application for visitor flows”, presenting festive and holiday activities while supporting entities in organizing such activities, delegating manpower at tourist spots to attend to visitor enquiries, distributing food guide, conducting more rigorous inspections and sending reminders to industry operators, among other measures. Through the diverse measures above, MGTO strives to cater for the needs of residents and visitors as well as to optimize the tourism environment and service quality in Macao continuously.
 

Use of smart tool about visitor flows enhances travel experience

MGTO encouraged visitors to harness the “smart application for visitor flows” for easing their travel experience. Visitors could view the predicted density of visitor flows at various tourist attractions in Macao via the corresponding website: https://poimonitor.macaotourism.gov.mo, mobile app “Step Out, Macao”, MGTO’s WeChat ID “MGTOweixin” as well as the introduction pages about Macao and its tourist attractions on the mobile app Baidu Maps. MGTO continued to collaborate closely with Public Security Police Force to enable users’ awareness about crowd control measures implemented by Public Security Police Force through the “smart application for visitor flows”.

 

Via mobile text message, MGTO advised visitors to leverage the “smart application for visitor flows” to learn more about the forecast level of visitor flows at major attractions in Macao before making suitable itinerary arrangements, hence guiding visitors to visit attractions in other districts during peak hours for visitor flows.

MGTO arranged for personnel to provide visitors with tourism information and guidance at ten tourist spots while assisting in diverting the flow of visitors, to channel visitors off the beaten path and minimize their impact on traffic conditions and neighborhoods near popular tourist sites, thus maintaining the positive destination image of Macao.

Rigorous patrol to cope with peak period of visitor arrivals

During the Golden Week, the Office carried out more rigorous inspections at various tourist spots, ports of entry and districts, besides taking concerted action with police authorities to combat illegal accommodation, with MGTO inspectors standing by round-the-clock. To attend to visitors’ enquiries, manpower was also adjusted in accordance with the situation at Tourist Information counters, while MGTO's tourism hotline (853) 2833 3000 maintained its 24-hour operator service.

During the period between 1^st and 7^th October, MGTO conducted 101 inspections (including inspections conducted by Inspection Division of MGTO and joined inspections conducted together with other departments concerned) at major ports of entry and tourist attractions, in face of the peak travel period. During inspections, no sign of irregularities involving unlicensed tour guides was discovered.

MGTO also carried out six joint actions against illegal accommodation with Public Security Police Force and sealed three apartments allegedly operated as illegal accommodation.

An array of continuous measures to optimize tourism environment
Highly concerned about the city’s tourism carrying capacity during festivals and holidays, MGTO has carried out a diversity of measures to alleviate the level of crowdedness at major attractions. MGTO is currently working on the scheme of collecting statistical figures about visitor flows via devices of the Internet of Things (IOT) at the vicinity from Senado Square until the Ruins of St. Paul’s, to optimize the forecast of visitor flows at tourist attractions.

MGTO will continue to consider opinions from different sectors and maintain sound communication with various stakeholders to optimize the tourism environment and service quality continuously in Macao, while further leveraging innovative technology to push forward smart tourism development, facilitating visitor flow diversion and enhancing visitors’ travel experience.

For statistics about visitations to Macao during the Golden Week, please visit MGTO’s online platform Macao Tourism Data plus (MTD plus: http://dataplus.macaotourism.gov.mo).