Macau has received more visitors since the beginning of the year than in the whole of 2019, thus setting a historic record, the Public Security Police (PSP) have announced.
A PSP statement released on its WeChat account on Saturday said that between the beginning of this year and 11 a.m. on Saturday, Macau recorded 39.411 million visitor arrivals, already surpassing the previous record of 39.406 million set in pre-COVID-19 pandemic 2019.
The PSP statement also said that the 39.411 million visitor arrivals recorded during the period represented a daily average of around 109,000.
According to calculations by the Post, the 39.406 million visitor arrivals recorded in the whole of 2019 was equivalent to a daily average of 107,962.
So far this year, according to the PSP statement, mainland Chinese accounted for 72.4 percent of all visitor arrivals, while Hongkongers accounted for 18.3 percent and Taiwanese for 2.5 percent. Foreign nationals accounted for the remaining 6.8 percent.
As of the end of the third quarter, according to the latest available official demographics, Macau had a population of 686,600 within a land area of 33.3 square kilometres, resulting in a population density of 20,619 per square kilometre.
Hengqin checkpoint’s border crossings reach 30-million benchmark
Meanwhile, a PSP statement yesterday said that between the beginning of this year and 1 p.m. yesterday, the Macau-mainland joint checkpoint on Zhuhai’s Hengqin island recorded 30 million entries and exits, up 32.6 percent year on year, exceeding the 30-million benchmark for the first time.
The entry and exit (border crossings) figures recorded by the Public Security Police, which run Macau’s immigration service, comprise local residents, visitors, non-resident workers (NRWs), non-local students enrolled in Macau, and all others with a special permit to stay in Macau.
So far this year, according to yesterday’s PSP statement, local residents accounted for 26.9 percent of all those crossing the Hengqin checkpoint, while visitors accounted for 38.9 percent, non-local students enrolled in Macau’s higher education institutions for 17.9 percent, and non-resident workers for 15.7 percent.
Three of Macau’s land border checkpoints with Zhuhai are Macau-mainland joint checkpoints, where the “joint inspection and one-time release” system is in operation, one of which is the Hengqin checkpoint, with the other being the Qingmao pedestrian border checkpoint and the Macau-Zhuhai checkpoint of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB).
The “joint inspection and one-time release” model is a joint Macau-mainland immigration clearance system adopted at Macau-mainland joint checkpoints where border crossers are required to pass border controls only once when completing their departure and arrival formalities.
Tourists throng Rua de S. Paulo yesterday, a narrow pedestrian-only street near the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Ruins of St. Paul’s landmark. – Photos: Tony Wong
Border crossers enter the Hengqin checkpoint’s immigration hall en route to Macau early this month.
