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Tourism in Macau received a welcome boost during the holiday period, preliminary figures showing that more than 724,800 visitors entered the city during the six-day period from December 20 to December 25, which overlaps the Christmas season and other public holidays. Indeed, the influx is regarded as one more evidence of the city remaining a regional travel hotbed. According to statistics from the Public Security Police, the daily average of arrivals stood at about 120,800, which suggested that there were sound levels of activity during this period across entry points into the territory.
Anniversary Day Peak Activity
On the 20th of December, which is a holiday to commemorate the founding of the Macau Special Administrative Region, there were 149,484 visitors. Such a peak in visitor numbers on this day is indicative of its relevance and is in line with visitor numbers from previous years, which peaked because of President Xi Jinping’s visit on the 25th of December in each of those years. The fact that traffic congestion is experienced indicates that this period is a good time to visit.
Regional Holiday Dynamics
The dynamics of this visitor wave are greatly influenced by the holiday schedules of Macau’s key feeder markets. Christmas is not a statutory public holiday in mainland China, the city’s biggest source of tourists, it is, however, an official holiday period across the border in Hong Kong, the second most important source of visitors. With December 26 also being a public holiday in Hong Kong, the flow of travelers is likely to have spilled over into the period beyond what the preliminary data captures in the six-day window.
Entry Patterns and Annual Trends
Though detailed statistics were yet to be provided by police regarding further breakdown based on their country of origin, it was reported that almost all of them passed through either the Border Gate checkpoint to mainland China or from the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. Both of them remain Macau’s lifelines for its tourism sector with respect to heavy foot traffic from across and including the Greater Bay Area.
The robust Christmas season performance caps a year of stellar recovery for Macau. In a series of comments made by Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, director of Macao Government Tourism Office, at the start of last month, it appears that Macao has managed to attract 36.5 million people within the first 11 months of 2025 alone, thus breaking the record set last year at 34.9 million.
Sustaining the Momentum
The evidence suggests a tourist industry that has had the guts to face the pandemic aftermath just as the year is set to conclude. That it managed to pull in a fairly substantial crowd during such critical peak seasons without any major activities says it all about what it has to offer. Still outpacing previous year benchmarks for visitor numbers, the challenge now into the new year is how to grow sustainably while continuing the charge to diversify experiences for the people that flock to the city’s shores.
Source: GGR Asia
