Visitation to Macau for early October’s Golden Week celebration was up an estimated 15% over 2024, although the holiday lasted eight days instead of the usual seven and the numbers fell short of government projections. The Macau Government Tourism Office had anticipated 150,000 visitors per day, for a total of 1.2 million.
Estimates from the city’s Public Security Police Force indicate about 1.14 million people visited Macau during the annual observance at the start of the month. That breaks down to about 143,000 people per day.
Higher annual GGR total ‘within reach’
Golden Week is prime time for travel among the mainland Chinese. It is also peak season for punters to patronise Macau’s casinos.
According to CreditSights’ Macau’s gaming outlook, Golden Week visitation should support strong gross gaming revenue for the month. It could also make the SAR’s full-year GGR target “attainable”.
In June, the Macau Gaming and Inspection Bureau revised its annual GGR forecast from MOP240 billion to MOP228 billion. It cited a drop in gaming revenue, economic turbulence and a changing visitor profile.
CreditSights now says Macau is in “a decent position” to achieve its 2025 target of MOP228 billion with monthly GGR of just MOP15.6 billion in the fourth quarter, versus the YTD average of MOP20.1 billion.
“Should the current pace of monthly GGR churn be sustained,” wrote analysts Nicholas Chen and David Bussey, “it would put the previous target of MOP240 billion within reach.”
Impact of Typhoon Matmo to be determined
Golden Week 2025 started on National Day (1 October), the anniversary of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. It also included the Mid-Autumn Festival (6 October), which has been likened to the US Thanksgiving holiday. Most visitors entered the city at the Border Gate, Hengqin checkpoint and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.
As usual, the majority of visitors, an estimated 943,000, came from mainland China. An additional 128,000 came from Hong Kong, and the remainder came from Taiwan and international markets.
Visitation peaked on Saturday, 4 October, with approximately 190,000 visitors. The numbers dropped to 113,000 on Sunday, 5 October, when travel was disrupted by Typhoon Matmo. According to the Macau Daily Times, the Signal 8 storm brought hurricane-force winds and heavy rains, but it caused minimal flooding.
The impact of Matmo on gaming revenue remains to be seen. In September, the impact of Typhoon Ragasa reduced September GGR by 5%-10%. That equates to about “three weekdays’ worth”, according to a 1 October report from JP Morgan.
However, Ragasa was the most powerful weather event of the year. The “super-typhoon” closed Macau casinos for 33 hours, from 23-25 September.
An estimated 1.14 million tourists, or about 143,000 a day, visited Macau for the annual Golden Week celebration in early October.