Copyright macaudailytimes
The number of visitors arriving in Macau in September reached 2,775,130, representing a 9.8% year-on-year increase, according to data from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC). The figure recorded last month indicates that the average number of monthly visitors in 2025 is now 3.3 million, suggesting over 40 million visitors for the full year. Analyzed by month, September was the weakest month for visitor arrivals this year, which is unsurprising since it is traditionally a slower period for tourism. Compared with August, the September figure represents a 34.2% decline. August was the strongest month of the year, with arrivals totaling over 4.2 million. September alone recorded a 19.4% increase (1,561,568) in same-day visitors, while overnight visitors (1,213,562) fell by 0.5%. The average length of visitors’ stay shortened by 0.1 days year-on-year to 1.2 days; the duration of stay for same-day visitors (0.2 days) and overnight visitors (2.5 days) remained unchanged. DSEC also reported that in the first three quarters of 2025, visitor arrivals totaled 29,671,070, up 14.5% year-on-year. The analysis shows that most visitors continue to be same-day visitors (17,278,529), with this subcategory showing an even higher increase (24.9%) than last year. Overnight visitors (12,392,541) also rose, though only by 2.5% y-o-y. Such performance caused the average length of stay to drop by 0.1 days to 1.1 days. The average duration of stay for same-day visitors remained unchanged at just below five hours (4:48), while that of overnight visitors also remained at 2.3 days. International visitors up 12.4% in first nine months International visitors totaled 1,885,965 in the first three quarters, up 12.4% year-on-year. Japan (116,224) led the markets that grew the most this year, with a 25% increase in the first nine months, followed by Thailand (114,933) with a 20.8% growth rate. Indonesia (146,490), South Korea (382,494), and the Philippines (382,851) followed, with increases of 14.6%, 12%, and 10.8%, respectively. The Philippines became the largest non–Greater China visitor market, edging out South Korea by just 357 visitors. Also growing but at a lower rate were Malaysia (121,409) and India (80,917), which recorded growth of 3.1% and 5%, respectively. The leading long-haul market continues to be the United States (112,330), which also recorded 8.7% growth in the first three quarters. These eight countries accounted for 1,457,648 visitors, or 77.3% of total international arrivals. IVS accounts for more than half of Mainland visitors Analysis of the same DSEC data shows that the number of visitors from mainland China reached 21,578,479 in the first three quarters of this year (up 18.4%), of which 11,505,928 (53.3%) were traveling under the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS). For this group, the increase was even higher than the overall figure, with IVS visitors growing by 24.3%. Among other mainland visitors, 1,442,328 traveled under the “one trip per week” measure, while 444,326 arrived under the “multiple-entry” measure. The total number of people on the “tourist group multi-entry” measure was 118,120. Moreover, visitors from Greater Bay Area cities rose 24% to 10,905,564, accounting for 50.5% of all mainland visitors. According to DSEC, this surge was driven by a 56.9% increase in visitors from neighboring Zhuhai. Visitors from Hong Kong (5,479,564) and Taiwan (727,062) also increased, although the rise from Hong Kong was modest (1.4%). Those from Taiwan grew by 16.5% year-on-year. Visitors by sea and air continue to drop Following a trend seen in recent years, the number of visitors entering Macau by land ports continued to grow (+19.5%), accounting for 82.7% (24,534,804) of the total. By contrast, visitor arrivals by sea (2,914,403; 9.8%) and air (2,221,863; 7.5%) recorded declines of 5.4% and 3.5%, respectively. Among land ports, visitor arrivals through the Border Gate and Hengqin Port increased by 23.1% and 40%, respectively.
