W the figures are not yet final, the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) has stated that it expects 34.9 million visitors entered Macau in 2024.
This estimate is based on data collected by the Public Security Police Force (PSP) at various border posts, which still needs to undergo verification before being published by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).
If confirmed, this would mean that December accounted for more than three million visitors, as official figures released by DSEC up to November 2024 show that by the end of that month, there had been a total of 31.9 million visitor entries.
These results exceed the MGTO’s forecast, which initially predicted around 33 million visitors for the year, later revising that estimate to approximately 34 million.
As reported by the Times, before the Christmas and New Year holiday season, the general visitor goal for the year was expected to be surpassed, based on figures released during the Macau handover holiday on Dec. 20.
At that time, the Times predicted that, with a monthly average of around 2.9 million visitors, it was likely that 2024 would end with a figure close to 35 million visitors.
The figure now released by MGTO represents a 23.7% year-on-year increase compared to 2023, and is 11.4% lower than the figure reached in 2019 (pre-pandemic).
The 2024 figure falls between the results recorded in 2017 (32.6 million) and 2018 (35.8 million).
