Published on : Tuesday, March 12, 2019
In his proposal, Mr Sou questioned the way the target of developing Macau as a
“world centre of tourism and leisure” – a policy aim of the local authorities that
has been promoted by the central government could well-match with the
“overwhelming” visitors numbers to the city, along with what he defined as
“worsening leisure conditions” and “very limited sources of international visitors”.
In 2018, the total number of visitor arrivals to Macau was almost 36 million, up
9.8 percent in comparison to 2017 and more than 56 percent higher when
compared to the visitor count a decade before in 2008, when it stood at 22.9
million, according to official data.
Last year, from mainland China, over 25.26 million visitor arrivals were recorded
roughly 71 percent of all arrivals that year. From Hong Kong, arrivals of visitors
accounted 6.33 million entries, nearly 18 percent of the 2018 tally. Visitors from
markets outside Asia were only 7.5 percent of all arrivals that year.
The land mass of Macau comprises only 30.8 square kilometers (11.89 square
miles), as per the recent data released by the city’s Statistics and Census Service.
The city has world’s one of the highest population densities, at about 21,100
people per square kilometer.