This Jan 30, 2020, photo shows a general view of Macao city is seen from the observation deck of Macao Town. (PHILIP FONG / AFP)

MACAO - The number of visitor arrivals to Macao almost doubled month-to-month in September, but the number still represented a decline of 83.8 percent year-on-year, the special administrative region (SAR)'s statistic department said here on Friday.

In the first three quarters of 2020, the number of visitor arrivals in Macao declined by 86.7% year-on-year to 4,019,104

The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that due to the resumption of permit for mainland residents to travel to Macao in late September, the number of visitor arrivals surged by 97.7 percent month-to-month to 449,085 in September 2020.

Same-day visitors and overnight visitors totaled 289,474 and 159,611 respectively in September. The average length of stay of visitors went down by 0.3 day year-on-year to 1.0 day.

The duration for same-day visitors shortened by 0.1 day year-on-year to 0.1 day, whereas that for overnight visitors rose by 0.3 day to 2.7 days.

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In terms of source market, the number of mainland visitors fell by 78.6 percent year-on-year to 412,451, with those from the nine Pearl River Delta cities in the Greater Bay Area reaching 250,996.

In the first three quarters of 2020, the number of visitor arrivals declined by 86.7 percent year-on-year to 4,019,104.

Same-day visitors and overnight visitors slid by 86.1 percent and 87.4 percent respectively year-on-year to 2,219,383 and 1,799,721. The average stay length of visitors went up by 0.2 day year-on-year to 1.4 days, with that of overnight visitors rising by 0.6 day to 2.8 days, while that of same-day visitors staying unchanged at 0.2 day.