Macau received more than 7.92 million visitor arrivals from January to May 10 this year, with about 5.11 million of those coming from mainland China, according to data presented by the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) at a Tuesday event. The figure up to May 10 has already surpassed the overall number of visitors to Macau for the whole of last year.

In the first 10 days of May, Macau welcomed more than 690,000 visitor arrivals, of which nearly 70 percent – or more than 480,000 arrivals – were from the Chinese mainland, showed the MGTO data, cited by the local public broadcaster TDM Chinese radio.

In full-year 2022, Macau recorded a total of 5.70 million visitor arrivals, down 26.0 percent year-on-year. The 2022 tally was the lowest number of annual visitor arrivals to Macau since 1999, showed official figures.

Mainland China has been the most significant feeder source market for Macau’s hospitality and casino gaming industries. The tally of visitors from the mainland has shown continuous sequential growth since Covid-19 associated restrictions were largely lifted in Macau and in mainland in early January.

In April alone, Macau logged an aggregate of nearly 2.29 million visitor arrivals. Of the tally, 1.39 million were from the mainland, according to the data made public on Tuesday by MGTO.

In the first three months of 2023, Macau received nearly 3.24 million tourists from mainland China, which accounted for 65.4 percent of the overall visitor arrivals during the period, at nearly 4.95 million, according to the city’s Statistics and Census Service.