The statistics bureau attributed the growth in visitor arrivals to the effect of the Chinese National Day holidays – commonly known as the October Golden Week period – which this year was boosted by coinciding with the lunar calendar-based Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.
The number of overnight and same-day visitors rose by 7.3% and 8.4% year-on-year respectively to 1.47 million and nearly 1.42 million.
The average length of stay of visitors in October was 1.2 days, on a par with the figure in the same month last year, but was 0.1-day fewer than that in September.
The number of mainland Chinese visitors to Macau in October was over 2.05 million, 12.8% higher than the prior-year period. Among them, 959,648 were travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS). The number of IVS visitors grew 11.1% year-on-year during the month.
The tally of visitors from Hong Kong and Taiwan – the second and third-most important source markets respectively – dropped by 9.4% and 2.1% respectively compared to the prior-year period in October. Meanwhile, the number of visitors from South Korea surged by 54.5% to 80,525, trailing the figure of Taiwan visitors in October by fewer than 5,000.
October’s Golden Week period includes China’s National Day on October 1, which this year fell on Sunday. China’s State Council declared the 2017 holiday period as running for eight days from October 1 to 8, as it included the Mid-Autumn Festival, which this year fell on October 4 (a Wednesday).
Source: GMB / GGR Asia
