Only 250,000 visitors arrived in Macau in the month after the resumption of casino gaming as entry restrictions continued to tighten amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. This is down 92% compared to average monthly visitors arrivals in 2019.
Inside Asian Gaming has been collecting daily visitor arrival numbers provided by the Public Police Force since the outbreak of the coronavirus, with the figures showing a sharp decline from around 36,000 on 27 January to as low as 2,600 on 11 February in the midst of the 15-day closure of all Macau casinos.
Tourist numbers slowly climbed upon the resumption of casinos on 20 February, reaching a high of 16,000 on 14 March, before falling again after the SAR government announced it was barring arrivals from overseas countries as of 18 March. By comparison, Macau averaged 108,000 visitors per day in 2019.
Visitor arrivals plummeted 95.6% year-on-year in February to just to 156,394, according to data from the Statistics and Census Bureau.
Last month, same-day visitors and overnight visitors had tumbled by 96% and 95% respectively although the average length of stay increased by 1.8 to 2.8 days, mainly attributable to mainland visitors.
In the first two months of 2020, visitor arrivals totalled 3,006,859, a drop of 56.9% year-on-year.