Visitor numbers in Macau experience a decrease following the initial post-pandemic opening.

Revitalized Take:

Macau had a stumble in visitor arrivals during the opening months of 2025, despite the post-COVID-19 reopening in January 2023. The Statistics and Census Service revealed that February saw about 3.15 million visitors, marking a 4.4% drop compared to the same month the previous year.

What's interesting is that February 2024 had set an unusually high baseline due to an extended Chinese New Year holiday, which attracted throngs of tourists, particularly from mainland China. In comparison, February 2025 witnessed a dip, with Macau registering 1.31 million visitor arrivals between January 28 and February 4, reflecting a 3.5% decline from the Chinese New Year holiday season of 2024.

The tourist drop during the Chinese New Year holiday was bigger than predicted, leaving the Macao Government Tourism Office's forecast in the dust. According to Andy Wu, president of the Macau Tourism Industry Association, the drop was likely due to the influence of neighboring regions, especially Hong Kong. He proposed that the large-scale celebrations in cities like Hong Kong may have enticed potential tourists away from Macau, leading to a reduction in visitors initially, followed by a slight rebound as the holiday progressed.

Visitors from Mainland China Dwindle

Although mainland China has consistently been Macau's largest tourism market, contributing over 70% of visitors, its numbers took a hit in February 2025. Visitor counts from mainland China slipped by 6.4%, totaling 2.29 million. Analyzing the crux of the issue, we found that the Drop in visitors using the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) decreased by 11.1% to 1.33 million. The new visa policies in China were primarily responsible for this nosedive, with travelers now subject to restrictions like the "one trip per week measure" and the "multiple-entry measure."

Another factor behind the tourist slump was reduced visitor arrivals from Pearl River Delta cities within the Greater Bay Area. In February, visitor counts from this region dropped by 3.2%, reaching 1.12 million. Hong Kong, another critical source of visitors, also experienced a decrease of 4.7%.

In a silver lining, international visitors soared by 17.9% year-on-year, with Southeast Asia experiencing a surge in visitors. Indonesia recorded a 19.6% increase, followed by Malaysia (18.1%), Thailand (25.5%), and Singapore (25.2%). However, the Philippines saw a 2.5% drop in visitor counts, with 38,847 visitors in February 2025. Despite the February dip, in the first two months of 2025, Macau documented a total of 6.79 million visitor arrivals, revealing a 10.4% increase year-on-year.

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Sources: 1. Macau News Agency 2. GGRAsia 3. CNBC 4. South China Morning Post 5. Bloomberg

Despite the increasing unemployment rate in Macau during Q1 2025, the city expects a surge of visitors for sports events in 2025, aiming to offset the falling tourist numbers.
The declining influx of visitors from mainland China in February 2025, a traditional stronghold for Macau tourism, is expected to have a significant impact on the holiday season in 2025.
In contrast to the falling visitor numbers from mainland China, there has been an observed increasing trend of visitors from Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines in the first two months of 2025, signaling a potential shift in the tourism landscape for Macau.

Visitor numbers in Macau experienced a decline for the first time since the COVID-19 reopening in January 2023, decreasing by 4.4% in a single month.

Visitor numbers in Macau experience a decrease following the initial post-pandemic opening.