Macau and Hong Kong have the highest international tourist spending: WTTC Report

The special administrative regions of Macau and Hong Kong experience the highest international visitor spending, according to highlights of a report by the World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC) annual City Travel & Tourism Impact Report on Monday.

The report noted that Macau has the highest foreign tourists spending making up 97.3 per cent of tourism gross domestic product (GDP) at USD 35.6 billion. Tourists from the China mainland are also considered as foreign tourists in this report.

In 2017, a total USD 14.3 billion of tourism GDP was generated in Macau, placing it among the top 20 in terms of GDP size and in the top 20 as a share of total city GDP.

In addition, tourism accounts for 27.6 per cent of Macau’s workforce, placing it behind Cancun city of Mexico, which has 37.7 per cent of its population employed in travel and tourism.

Macau was also ranked top three in terms of international visitor arrivals, with 27.9 million visitors arriving in the city as of 2017, which places the city behind Hong Kong and Bangkok.

Overall, the WTTC report found that there has been a shift from North to South and West to East, with half of the top 20 largest cities in terms of market size and seven of the top 20 by GDP contribution emerging in the Asia-Pacific region.

All of the fastest growing top ten cities are in emerging cities, including Chongqing, Shanghai, Laos, Tehran and Mumbai.

The Asia Pacific region generates the largest proportion of tourism GDP at USD 2.7 trillion, or 36 per cent of global tourism GDP coming from the region alone.