The latest figures from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) of the Chinese semi-autonomous region show an increase of 0.1% compared to the same period in 2024.
This number is the highest since the DSEC began compiling these statistics in 1998, prior to Macau’s administration transition from Portugal to China.
With more guests, the hotel’s occupancy rate in the territory reached 89.3% between January and September, 3.9 percentage points higher than the same period in 2024, marking the highest rate since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
By the end of September, Macau had 147 hotels and guesthouses, three more than last year and a historic high, offering about 45,000 rooms, according to the DSEC.
Also last month, three hotels were under construction, with a total of 204 rooms, and nine more in the project stage, which could offer 1,000 rooms, announced the Land and Urban Construction Bureau of Macau today.
The region welcomed 29.7 million visitors in the first nine months, up 14.5 percent from the same period in 2024, making it the second-highest start to a year on record.
However, 58.2% of the visitors (17.3 million) arrived on organized tours and spent less than a day in the city.
In September alone, the average hotel occupancy rate decreased by 0.1 percentage points, to 84.6%, while the number of guests remained similar to the same month last year: 1.12 million.
This is despite hotels reducing average room prices to 1,270 patacas (137 euros), 1.1% lower than in the same month in 2024, according to data from the Macau Hotel Association, which comprises 48 local establishments.
According to the report released by the Tourism Services Bureau, the price drop was mostly felt in three-star hotels, where the average price fell by 5.4%, to 850 patacas (92 euros).
Macau’s hotel establishments welcomed more than 14.4 million guests in 2024, setting a new record.
The previous record of 14.1 million guests was set in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, a year that Macau ended with just 38,300 rooms in 122 hotel establishments.
“We have more and more tourists, but the level of consumption is dropping,” warned Sam Hou Fai, Macau’s government leader, on May 13.
The average spending of each visitor in Macau, excluding casinos, fell by 12.8% in the first half compared to the same period in 2024.
