Macao is a tourist city with a dense population, but is short on natural resources. Almost all of the life-support resources of the city depend on imports from outside. During the past 20 years, Macao has experienced an economic boom accompanied by rapid social development. The tourism industry (including gambling, hotel accommodation, restaurant dining, and shows) have become the city's main economic activity since 1991. This paper uses emergy flow analysis to investigate and characterize the urban evolution and city development that have occurred in Macao from 1983 to 2003. Macao's tourism industry has existed almost from the establishment of the city, with the legalization of gambling in Macao occurring in 1850. Tourism has become the biggest industry in Macao, contributing more than half of the city's revenues since 1995. The emergy flow related to tourism was tracked and analyzed to measure its contribution to Macao. In addition, we used statistical analysis to divide the various emergy-based indicators into three categories: positive, negative, and insensitive indicators. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.