Tourists spending more time in Macau

Visitors are spending more time in Macau as the average length of stay at local hotels has reached a new record high in October, official data shows. Yet the territory is still far from reaching figures registered in other destinations.

According to the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), guests have spent an average of 1.55 nights in MSAR hotels, up by 0.06 nights from the same period of 2010.

This figure is the highest ever registered in the territory since the DSEC began collecting data about this sector, in 1997. The average length of stay at local hotels has increased by 36 percent in the last six years – it was down to 1.14 nights in December 2005.

In another positive sign for the Macau tourism sector, the percentage of overnight visitors who check into a hotel or guesthouse also rose in October. About 61.6 percent of tourists were also hotel guests, up from 60.6 percent year-on-year.

But the MSAR remains far from length of stay numbers posted by other tourism destinations.
For instance, in 2010 visitors spent an average of 3.9 nights in Asia’s second biggest gaming hub, Singapore, and 3.6 nights both in the US casino capital, Las Vegas, and in neighbouring Hong Kong.

In fact the percentage of tourists spending less than a day in Macau is on the rise. In the first ten months of 2011 same-day visitors accounted for 53.8 percent of the total, at 12.4 million, up from 48.4 percent in 2009.

Source - macaudailytimes.com.mo