Hotels in Macau recorded the highest average occupancy for a January since before the COVID-19 pandemic, officials announced.
According to data from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), 91.6% of all hotel and guesthouse rooms in the region were booked in January. This represents an increase of 0.7 percentage points compared to the same period in 2025 and is the highest average occupancy for the first month of the year since 2019.
Hotels in Macau had already closed last year with an average occupancy of 89.4%, the highest since before the pandemic began. Despite more rooms being booked, the number of guests in January fell to 1.24 million, a 1.7% year-on-year decrease.
Unlike January 2025, which included the Lunar New Year holidays—a peak tourism period—the Year of the Fire Horse began in late February this year.
Read more about this topic: Macau sets new visitor record for fifth consecutive month
One factor that helped hotels fill rooms was a 3.8% year-on-year drop in average prices to MOP 1,359 (€143) in January, according to the Macau Hotel Association, which represents 48 local properties.
The largest price reductions were in three-star hotels, where the average fell 13.8% to MOP 898 (€95). In 2025, the association had already cut average prices by 3.5%. Macau received 3.65 million visitors in January, the highest ever for the first month of the year. However, nearly 62% of visitors (2.25 million) arrived on organized tours and spent less than one day in Macau.
“Tourist numbers are increasing, but spending levels are dropping,” warned Macau Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai on May 13.
Average visitor spending in Macau, excluding casinos, fell 7.3% in 2025 to MOP 2,000 (€212).
DSEC had already pointed out that the “change in visitor spending patterns” was one of the main reasons for a 1.3% contraction in Macau’s economy between January and March—the first annual GDP decline since late 2022, when COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.
Still, Macau’s economy recovered to close 2025 with 4.7% growth, driven largely by a 10% increase in casino economic output, which accounted for nearly half (47.3%) of the city’s GDP.
