Macau, China, Jan. 23, 2025 (Lusa) - Macau's hotel establishments welcomed more than 14.4 million guests in 2024, setting a new historical record, the Chinese semi-autonomous region's Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) announced on Thursday.

According to the official data, the number of guests in hotels and guesthouses in Macau last year rose by 6.4% from 2023.

The previous record, 14.1 million guests, had been set in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, in a year that Macau ended with just 38,300 rooms in 122 hotel establishments.

At the end of 2024, the territory had 146 hotels and guesthouses, four more than the previous year and the highest number since DSEC began compiling this data in 1997, before the handover of the territory from Portugal to China.

However, the number of rooms available in Macau last year fell by 7.8% compared to 2023, to around 43,000.

With fewer rooms available for more guests, the average occupancy rate of hotel establishments rose 4.9 percentage points to 86.4%, the highest figure since 2019.

In addition, the average price of hotel rooms in Macau also rose by 3.1% in 2024, according to data from the Macau Hotel Association, which comprises 47 local hotels.

A report released by the Macao Government Tourism Office revealed that the average price stood at 1,360 patacas (€156) last year, 1.5% more than before the start of the pandemic and the highest since 2015.

In 2023, Macau's hotels and guesthouses welcomed 13.6 million guests, 165.4% more than the previous year, and with an average occupancy of 81.5%, more than double the figure recorded in 2022.

VQ/ARO  // ARO.

Lusa