October gold rush

The October 1 National Day holiday marks the beginning of the “Golden Week” holidays for mainland Chinese and Macau is off to a busy start, recording more than 140,000 visitors yesterday across the borders from Zhuhai, ferry terminals and the airport.

A majority of arrivals traveled across the border from Gongbei, Zhuhai into Macau and by ferry from Hong Kong. An estimated 115,536 walked across the Gongbei border while 17,966 arrivals came in by ferry.

A much smaller percentage of arrivals came to Macau by air and across the Lotus Bridge linking Zhuhai’s Hengqin island with Cotai next to the Venetian Macao. An estimated 3,834 people arrived by air and 4,766 crossed the Lotus Bridge. About 3,250 people traveled into Macau through the inner harbor port, near where the new Ponte 16 and Sofitel development is slated to open next month.

During Macau’s May Labor Day “Golden Week” holidays (May 1 – 7) this year, the city received close to 590,000 visitors, a year-on-year growth of 29 percent. With the opening of the Venetian Macao in August, the visitor arrivals are expected to surge even higher throughout this month’s “golden week”.