Macau beats slow start with 12% increase in visitors during Golden Week

r the disappointing figures during the first four days of Golden Week, Macau’s number of visitors has risen almost 12% in the first seven days of the eight-day Chinese holiday.

According to the data released by the territory’s Public Security Police, the aggregate number of visitors between October 1 and October 7 increased 11.6% year-on-year basis, up to 844,522 arrivals.

Breaking down the data, the number of mainland China tourists grew 9.6% compared to the same period last year, rising up to 647,352. On the other hand, the number of non-mainland visitors surpassed the mainland segment at the beginning of the festive period, posting a 6.8% growth during the first six days.

Moreover, the number of visitors reached its climax on Saturday when it increased 60%, welcoming more than 100,000 people that day only. Following this rush, mainland visitors were up 82% with 75,298 arrivals.

China’s Golden Week is usually peak season for the gambling hub; and with these figures, Macau has been able to overcome the slow start and analysts’ initial concerns. Ben Lee, Managing Partner at IGamix, had told Bloomberg that that the VIP betting volume was expected to decline slightly, while mass gaming revenue may have increased at low single-digits.

“Casinos, shops and restaurants inside the resorts were not crowded in the last few days. It’s just like a regular Saturday night performance, definitely not a ‘Golden Week’-type busy.

“We are scrambling to find out what happened,” Lee said last week.

Last Friday, Macau casino stocks dived on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index. Shares in Galaxy Entertainment and Sands China fell, while Wynn Macau dipped more than 4%. MGM China and SJM Holdings dropped as much as 2.9% and 1.8% respectively.

Although there is no clear connection between overall tourism arrivals and casino gross gaming revenue, last year 770,000 people visited Macau during the National Day Golden Week. The figure was up by 19% from 2015, according to the official data.