In general, the length of stay for overall visitors was the same as Q2 2011. More visitors took a same day trip to Macao (36%) when compared with to the same period in 2010 (10% increase) while there is a drop of 6 percent of visitors staying over 3 days (5%). Comparatively, higher percentage of non-FIT stayed 2 days or more (97%) than FIT visitors (60%) and first time visitors stayed longer than repeat visitors with 2.99 and 2.27 days in average respectively. Visitors from Taiwan, China stayed the longest (average 3.43 days) which overtook visitors from other Asian countries (average 3.07 days), and the shortest length of stay is visitors from Hong Kong (average 1.17 days) which is the same as previous quarters. Visitors came for pleasure purpose (average 2.52 days) stayed longer than past few quarters.
Results of Q3 2011 show that shopping (24%) ranked first for main purposes of visiting Macao, the same as past quarters, followed by visiting attractions (19%) which overtook cuisine (18%) as the second main purpose of visit. The results also show that more visitors came for pleasure purpose in Q3 2011 (4 percent increase compared to the previous quarter). Regarding tourism activities taken by visitors while they stayed in Macao, there is an upward trend of visiting world heritage sites since Q4 2009, but the trend of attending MICE business and attending shows, concerts and special events fluctuates throughout the quarters. It appears that the special events, such as fireworks festival, MIF held in Q3 did not make any impact on visitors’ trip planning to Macao.
About the VPS
The VPS is an ongoing project of the International Tourism Research Centre of IFT designed to inform and monitor the trend in Macao Visitor Profile and their overall perception of their visit to Macao. Reports are issued quarterly with special supplemental analysis conducted on an ad hoc basis.
For more info
Please contact Ms. Wendy Tang of ITRC at itrc@ift.edu.mo. We welcome questions and inquiries.