Tourism and Gaming

The tourism and gaming industry, a general term for tourism, hotels, catering, retails and gaming, is a major driving force of Macao’s economy. Gaming by itself is the largest source of direct tax in Macao.

The fast growing tourism and service industries are the main source of foreign income for Macao. The income generated from tourism has exceeded the total value of exports since 1992. Over the 1990s, the tourism industry in Macao prospered and its development accelerated following the establishment of the SAR Government.

Macao is trying to position itself as a global tourism and leisure hub. Its tourism sector will continue to diversify while consolidating its unique cultural resources.

Regional cooperation will also be strengthened in a bid to promote multi-destination travel and turn Macao into a premium cultural tourism city.

According to statistics provided by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), the gaming industry’s total gross revenue in 2013 was 360.749 billion patacas (US$46.25 billion), ranking No. 1 in the world. The sector contributed 134.38 billion patacas (US$17.228 billion) in direct tax.

The industry’s gross income for the first six months of 2014 was 250.377 billion patacas (US$32.1 billion), and gaming tax revenues totalled 75.353 billion patacas (US$10.045 billion).

In 2013 Macao’s visitor arrivals hit 29,324,822, an increase of four percent. The number of day-trippers totalled 14,268,463, accounting for 49 percent of the total number of visitor arrivals, with an average stay of 1.0 day.

During the first six months of 2014, the number of visitor arrivals was 15,283,847, an increase of eight percent over the previous year. The number of day-trippers totaled 7,086,926, accounting for 53.6 percent of the total number of visitor arrivals, with an average stay of 1.0 day.