The city’s visitor arrivals has averaged around 116,000 per day so far this year, and could rise further as the region prepares for an influx of tourists during the busy July-August summer season
Macao passes 20 million visitor arrivals in 2026, 18 days earlier than last year
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The number of travellers entering Macao is surging, with the Public Security Police (PSP) stating that the 2026 visitor arrival figure broke the 20 million mark as of 20 June. This milestone was achieved a full 18 days earlier than the year before, when Macao reached a record-breaking annual total of more than 40 million tourists.
At present, Macao’s visitor arrival for this year averaged around 116,000 per day, up 10.2 percent year-on-year. The standout day was 2 May – the second day of the mainland’s Labour Day holiday – when the SAR recorded its highest-ever single-day total of roughly 248,000 arrivals.
In terms of the market composition, mainland visitors accounted for some 14.63 million of the 20 million travellers that have entered Macao so far in 2026. Hong Kong and Taiwan were in second and third place, logging 3.46 million and 541,000 visitors respectively.
Meanwhile, 1.36 million visitors were from the international market, with the largest segment being South Korea, which accounted for approximately 270,000 arrivals. Not far behind was the Philippines, which registered around 260,000 arrivals, as well as Thailand, which recorded more than 110,000 visitors. Similarly, Malaysia and Indonesia each recorded approximately 80,000 arrivals.
The Border Gate remained Macao’s busiest checkpoint, handling 43.5 percent of arrivals, followed by the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) Macao Port (20.9 percent), the Hengqin Port (16.1 percent) and Macao International Airport (7.5 percent).
[See more: The Greater Bay Area’s unified tourism brand still ‘a work in progress’, experts tell Skål Congress in Macao]
Moving forward, Andy Wu, the president of the Travel Industry Council of Macau, told local media that he was confident Macao’s visitor arrival figure would break the 43 million mark this year due to the central government’s favourable policies for the city. If realised, this number would exceed the official 2026 visitor target of 41 million mentioned by the director of the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, last week.
Wu added that he expects the daily average visitor arrival figure to reach approximately 120,000 during the summer holiday period in July and August, which are traditionally the busiest in the SAR’s tourism sector.
Senna Fernandes was similarly optimistic about the summer holiday, especially August – a month in which Macao traditionally welcomes its largest influx of visitors for the whole year.
Speaking to local media, the MGTO head said many events would be staged in the second half of the year, with government departments and community groups working together to draw tourists into residential districts to spend.
The MGTO chief’s comments were echoed by the head of the Macau Hotel Association, Jocelyn Wong, who added that the sector is hoping to boost the hotel occupancy rate to around 90 percent during the summer break.
As for the first half of 2026, Wong mentioned that the occupancy rate reached approximately 80 percent, with hotel room prices falling by between 5 to 6 percent year-on-year.
