Despite ongoing pressures, Macau welcomed a record number of punters in August 2025, marking a 15.5 percent increase year-on-year (y-o-y). The former Portuguese colonial enclave, now a Chinese Special Administrative Region and the world’s largest gambling hub, saw over 4.2 million people visit the city in a single month.
Macau Rising
While Las Vegas continues to see declining visitor numbers–attributed by many to the so-called “Trump Slump”–Macau is surging ahead and setting new records.
The city recorded 4,219,034 visitors in August, according to figures published by the Statistics and Census Service, which is a new monthly high.
Both same-day and overnight visits contributed to this growth. Same-day visitors increased by 25.1 percent, with overnight stays up 3.4 percent compared with August 2024.
However, despite the increase in numbers, the average length of stay remained stable at 1.1 days, with day visitors spending 0.3 days and overnight visitors spending 2.3 days.
Mainland China Remains Backbone
Punters from Mainland China–where gambling is illegal, but widely practised–continued to dominate Macau’s tourism sector, with 3.25 million arrivals overland, up 18.4 percent y-o-y.
Those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme–a programme allowing residents from certain Chinese cities to visit Macau independently rather than in group tours– numbered 1.79 million, a 22.2 percent increase from last year.
Among the Mainland visitors, 204,965 travelled under the “one trip per week measure”, 69,489 under the “multiple-entry measure” and 24,719 under the “tourist group multi-entry measure”.
Southeast Asian Countries Top Charts
International visitors, though a much smaller group than those from Mainland China, also contributed to growth. Arrivals from Southeast and East Asia rose by 17.3 percent y-o-y.
Top source countries included: Philippines (38,389 visitors, up 9.1 percent), South Korea (35,177 visitors, down 4.7 percent), Japan (16,630 visitors, up 57.2 percent), Thailand (13,417 visitors, up 110.2 percent), U.S. (11,755 visitors, up 14.2 percent), Malaysia (7,991 visitors, up 4.5 percent) and Singapore (6,616 visitors, up 14.0 percent).
Under Pressure
Despite record-breaking arrivals, Macau’s gaming industry is facing significant challenges.
Externally, the sector is under pressure from growing regional competition, with new casino-resort developments emerging in Southeast and East Asia, including Vietnam, the Philippines, and Japan.
And internally, over the last two years, incremental crackdowns have targeted high-stakes junkets, gaming whales, and currency exchanges.
The territory is also in the process of reviewing its 35-year-old advertising laws, which could further restrict gambling advertisements, with new regulations expected to take effect in early 2026.
Still, this hasn’t shaken Macau’s resilience, with the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau reporting gross gaming revenue of MOP22.15 billion (some US$2.76bn/£2.04bn) for August 2025 – a healthy 12.2 percent increase y-o-y.
