Macao recorded 1.05 million visitors in first six days of Golden Week

Macao recorded a total of 1,050,000 visitors in the first six days of the October 2026 Golden Week, according to data published by the Macao Public Security Police. The period’s daily average was roughly 175,315 arrivals. That figure is up on the 2025 daily average but remains below the six‑day peak in 2025, when just over 1.14 million visitors were counted.

Context for Golden Week and the source markets

Golden Week in October is one of the main travel windows for consumers from mainland China and a peak season for Macao’s casino business. The State Council of the People’s Republic of China designated the mainland holiday from 1 to 7 October, including China’s National Day on 1 October; the official season in 2026 was one day shorter than in 2025.

Mainland China remains the dominant source market. The local tourism office and the Public Security Police publish complementary figures that allow routes of entry to be identified, although the Police did not break down the origin of every visitor in their full report.

Entries by checkpoints and main arrival routes

Aggregated data for the first five days of the holiday show most tourists entered through three principal points:

• Border Gate: 497,273 arrivals

• Hengqin checkpoint: 227,754 arrivals

• Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge (HKZM Bridge): 142,395 arrivals

That distribution of flows confirms land border corridors remain the backbone of traffic into Macao during holiday peaks. The Police’s information complements figures published by the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), which provided an origin breakdown for the first five days.

Origin breakdown according to MGTO

The Macao Government Tourism Office said that between 1 and 5 October there were 920,456 total arrivals, of which 797,532 came from mainland China and 85,716 came from Hong Kong. The remainder corresponds to other jurisdictions not itemised in the MGTO statement.

“The majority of visitors in the early days of Golden Week came from mainland China,” the MGTO statement said.

MGTO’s numbers help triangulate the scale of the tourism rebound after past restrictions and position mainland China as the primary demand supplier for the destination.

Comparison with 2025 and effects on the casino sector

The 1.05 million figure in six days is lower than the 2025 result, when Macao recorded just over 1.14 million in the equivalent period. On a daily basis, the 2026 average (175,315) exceeds the 2025 average (143,090), which had been a record for that stretch.

Movements of this scale typically translate directly into the casino business during Golden Week: higher hotel occupancy, greater footfall on gaming floors and increased demand across food and retail. Operators continue to monitor traffic composition (origin, length of stay, average spend) to calibrate shifts, promotions and inventory management.

Operational implications and points to watch

Checkpoint-level data is useful for operators and service providers because it signals the logistical corridors where to concentrate resources. For mobility platforms, transport services and hotel chains the figures indicate where to scale operations. For regulators and urban planners, flows through Border Gate and the HKZM Bridge refocus attention on border management and transport capacity.

For readers interested in the impact on specific products in the sector, these movements affect demand for casino services and for payments used by visitors from mainland China and Hong Kong.

What remains to be seen for the rest of Golden Week

Official statistics that follow will include day seven and will complete the total tally for Golden Week 2026. Analysts and market participants will watch three variables: total visitor volume at period close, composition by origin, and changes in spend per visitor. Those three data points will be necessary to compare 2026 with 2025 comprehensively and to adjust year‑end forecasts.

Pending milestones

1. Official publication of the total visitors at the close of 7 October.

2. Additional MGTO data on average spend and average length of stay.

3. Potential statements from casino operators on occupancy and performance during the holiday week.

The partial counts published by the Macao Public Security Police and the Macao Government Tourism Office allow tracking of Macao’s tourism recovery and seasonality, keeping mainland China as the main engine of arrivals during Golden Week.

By Emilio Navarro, Technology Correspondent for the sector.