Macau tops mainland Chinese outbound satisfaction ranking for second year

 jul26

Macau has held on to first place in the China Tourism Academy’s latest rankings of outbound destinations for mainland Chinese tourists, winning particular praise for its “leisure and entertainment” as well as “attractions and accommodation”.

The academy’s 2025 Top 10 Destinations for Chinese Outbound Tourist Satisfaction, released on Monday, also pointed to a broader rebound in outbound travel.

Mainland residents made 148 million outbound trips in 2025, close to the 155 million recorded in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic. Outbound travel spending totalled nearly US$160 billion (MOP1.29 trillion), with both trips and spending rising by more than 20 percent year-on-year.

New Zealand and Australia followed Macau in the 2025 list, with Hong Kong, Argentina, Spain, Singapore, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom also featuring among the top 10.

The China Tourism Academy, a research institute under the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism, measures satisfaction by assessing how well factors such as tourism scenery, infrastructure, the entertainment environment and reception services meet mainland travellers’ needs. Macau ranked third in 2023, then moved to the top in 2024 and retained the position in 2025.

In a statement on Monday, the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) said it was encouraged by the positive feedback from mainland visitors, adding that the result reflected broad affirmation of Macau’s tourism offer and was the product of joint efforts across the community.

“The Macau government is committed to enhancing the visitor experience, improving service standards across the tourism industry, enriching tourism products and strengthening reception capacity, while actively participating in tourism initiatives led by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and other [Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area] cities,” the office said.

Macau reported a record 40.07 million visitors in 2025. Mainland travellers accounted for 72.4 percent of the total, or 29.02 million, up 18.5 percent from a year earlier.

Importance of local attitude

The China Tourism Academy’s latest report also noted that, across outbound destinations, visitor satisfaction in 2025 with “urban public services”, “consumption environment” and “tourism enterprise services” fell below expectations. By contrast, “infrastructure” and the “social environment” exceeded expectations.

It added that “destination image” and “value for money” were the two most influential factors shaping overall satisfaction.

Since 2023, when mainland Chinese citizens were able to resume outbound travel in the post-Covid era, their psychological expectations of outbound destinations have eased, shifting from “looking up” to “viewing them on equal terms”, the academy said. It cautioned that steady satisfaction levels, and even modest gains, may not be solely the result of genuine improvements in destination quality, but could also reflect lower expectations.

To lift satisfaction among mainland travellers, the academy called for coordinated improvements in value for money, residents’ attitudes and service delivery across key sectors, noting that a welcoming local response can help compensate for weaker performance in areas such as transport and travel agencies.

https://macaubusiness.com/macau-tops-mainland-chinese-outbound-satisfaction-ranking-for-second-year/