As expected by the Macau gaming and travel stakeholders, the Christmas season has brought a strong visitor activity to the region. GGRAsia reports that city officials recorded more than 362,600 visitors from December 23 to December 25 inclusive. Public Security Police has reportedly come up with preliminary data showing that the daily average in visitor arrivals to the city during the holiday period was around 121,000.

Strong Visitor Activity:

According to GGRAsia, the daily average in tourist arrivals over the Christmas season was stronger than the one recorded during the China’s National Day held in autumn to include eight festive days. Such a busy tourist season lasting for more than a week reported a daily average of visitor arrivals of  116,546, according to the source.

The same source reports that Christmas holidays brought the highest daily total of 133,603 visitors to Macau on December 23. As for Christmas Eve, December 24, the city reportedly welcomed 120,594 arrivals, while 108,446 tourists chose the gambling mecca to spend Christmas Day, December 25. According to the figures released by the authorities, it means that the city recorded a total of 362,643 visitor arrival during the holiday. Averaged over three festive days, the city’s daily visitor count stood at 120,881.

Exceeding Autumn Holiday Figures:

The Christmas holiday visitor total is much lower than the 932,368 visitor count reported by the city during the China’s National Day. As reported, the total figures are mainly due to the fact that Christmas is not a holiday in mainland China therefore significantly reducing visits to Macau on week days. But the Christmas daily average exceeded the previous peak period, particularly due to the influx of tourists from Hong Kong where Christmas is an official holiday.

Recording 362,643 Festive Arrivals:

Hong Kong is reportedly the second most important source of tourists for Macau and the tourist arrivals are still expected from there on December 26, which is the closing day of the festive period. According to GGRAsia, these arguments are based on the usual arrivals from Hong Kong and China, but city officials did not report the breakdown of the visitor nationalities. However, the source reports that the majority of arrivals to Macau were recorded at the Border Gate checkpoint located between Macau and mainland China, as well as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge.

As reported, the strong visitor stream into Macau during Christmas holidays had been expected by the representatives from gaming and travel sectors before the festive period. Despite cold weather, the city welcomed almost 363,000 tourists to elevate the festive daily average to almost 121,000 tourists.