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Hundreds of thousands of mainland Chinese visitors have descended on the world’s biggest gambling hub of Macau for the Labour Day holiday, packing tightly into its narrow cobblestone streets and placing bets in its glitzy casinos.
The surge in visitors comes after China and its special administrative region Macau lifted strict COVID-19 restrictions in January, allowing visitors to stream into Macau for the first time in more than three years.
More than 100,000 visitors arrived in the former Portuguese city each day on Saturday and Sunday, local media reported, citing government statistics, up from 60,000 a day recorded in previous days.
On the pastel colored streets surrounding the historical sites of Senado Square and the Ruins of St Paul’s, hundreds of visitors thronged cheek by jowl to snap photographs and try Macanese delicacies including egg tarts and dried meat.
Macau is the top destination for Chinese travelers within Asia from April 17 to May 7, according to travel data firm ForwardKeys, with bookings up 11% from pre-pandemic levels in 2019 versus a 32% fall in nearby Hong Kong.
