In a statement, the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) revealed that the occupancy rate of hotels in the territory increased by 27.3 percentage points compared to the same month in 2022.
The city registered 819,000 guests in January, up 59.6% year-on-year, in the approximately 38,000 rooms in the 125 hotels.
The average price of hotel rooms in Macau also reached the highest value since January 2020, according to data from the Macau Hotel Association, which brings together 43 local hotels.
A report released on Friday, February 24, by the Tourism Services Bureau (DST) revealed that the average price stood at €138.3, up 41.8% from the same month in 2022.
Macau hotels closed in 2022 with an occupancy rate of 38.4%, the second lowest value in over two decades and 11.7 percentage points less than in 2021.
According to official data dating back to 1997, the worst year for hotels in the territory was 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, with an occupancy rate of 28.6%, due to the ban imposed for several months by China on travel to Macau.
The city, which, similarly to the interior of China, followed the ‘zero covid’ policy, betting on mass testing, confinements of risk areas, and quarantines, announced in December the cancellation of most of the prevention and containment measures.
With the easing of restrictions after nearly three years, the average hotel occupancy rate during the week of the Lunar New Year was 85.7%, with a peak on the third day (January 24) at 92.1%, the DST reported.
In the same statement, the DSEC revealed that in January, the number of visitors participating in organized tours was 4,800, up 80.4% compared to the same month in 2022, but still far from the 543,000 recorded before the pandemic began.
China, on February 6, lifted the end of all restrictions due to the covid-19 pandemic on travel to Hong Kong and Macau, allowing organized tours to the two cities to resume.
The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council, the Chinese executive, confirmed the cancellation of the registration requirement and quotas to cross the borders connecting the two regions to mainland China, according to a statement.
With information from Publituris