As affected by the novel coronavirus pneumonia for more than a year, tourism activities have been subdued, which led to an accumulation of consumption capacity of visitors. Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that total spending of visitors (excluding gaming expenses) increased by 23.5% year-on-year to MOP6.18 billion in the first quarter of 2021, driven by an upsurge of 128.6% in their per-capita spending (MOP3,556). Total spending of overnight visitors rose by 48.0% year-on-year to MOP5.59 billion, while that of same-day visitors dropped by 52.1% to MOP589 million.

In terms of visitors’ per-capita spending in the first quarter, spending of visitors from mainland China leapt by 103.8% year-on-year to MOP3,647, with spending of those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme (MOP7,132) soaring by 230.4%. Moreover, per-capita spending of visitors from Hong Kong (MOP2,687) and Taiwan (MOP3,026) shot up by 215.9% and 146.4% year-on-year respectively. Overnight visitors spent MOP6,084 on average, a growth of 144.9% year-on-year. On the other hand, per-capita spending of same-day visitors went down by 0.7% year-on-year to MOP719.

As regards type of expense, visitors spent primarily on shopping (64.1% of per-capita spending), food & beverage (16.2%) and accommodation (15.9%) in the first quarter. Per-capita shopping spending of visitors jumped by 238.6% year-on-year to MOP2,280, of which spending on cosmetics & perfume (MOP700), handbags & shoes (MOP456) and clothing (MOP400) saw substantial growth of 232.0%, 559.1% and 407.4% respectively. Analysed by main purpose of visit, per-capita spending of visitors coming to Macao for vacation (MOP6,790), shopping (MOP4,203) and visiting relatives or friends (MOP3,107) surged by 204.5%, 72.7% and 184.4% year-on-year respectively.

With respect to visitors’ comments, their satisfaction towards various services and facilities in the first quarter of 2021 registered increases to different extents as compared to the fourth quarter of 2020. The share of visitors who complimented on public transport services (89.2%) went up by 4.0 percentage points quarter-to-quarter, and the proportions of those who were satisfied with services of gaming establishments (91.1%) and restaurants (91.5%) rose by 3.6 percentage points and 2.5 percentage points respectively. Meanwhile, 69.8% of the visitors considered that there were adequate points of tourist attractions in Macao, an increase of 2.5 percentage points quarter-to-quarter. The proportions of visitors who expressed favourable comments on public facilities (95.4%) and environmental hygiene (96.8%) recorded respective growth of 1.9 percentage points and 0.4 percentage points quarter-to-quarter.