Only five out of 25 hotels at major Macau casino complexes surveyed by GGRAsia were sold out – as of Thursday – for at least four nights during China’s upcoming October Golden Week holiday period from October 1 to October 7. The period coincides with celebrations for China’s National Day.
The information was collated by GGRAsia from the hotels’ respective online booking engines.
These five hotels were Emerald Tower at MGM Cotai; Galaxy Hotel, Banyan Tree Macau and Hotel Okura Macau at the Galaxy Macau casino resort complex in Cotai; and StarWorld Hotel in the Macau peninsula.
A check conducted by GGRAsia on Monday showed that a total of 12 hotels at major casino complexes were at the time sold out for at least four nights during the Golden Week period.
On Tuesday, the Macau authorities announced a total of four new cases of Covid-19, all involving security guards working in local hotels used for quarantine purposes.
The four cases were said to be all linked to the two security guard infections announced over the weekend. The four cases were detected after staff with close contact with those two infections were put in preventive quarantine by Macau’s health authorities.
Following the new Covid-19 cases in Macau, authorities in the neighbouring city of Zhuhai, Guangdong province, introduced on Sunday a requirement for all arrivals from Macau to undergo a 14-day compulsory quarantine. The requirement was scheduled to be lifted by the end of Thursday (September 30).
Macau’s Chief Executive, Ho Iat Seng, said on Wednesday that even if Zhuhai dropped its inbound quarantine rule by National Day on October 1, it might not help Macau’s inbound tourism trade for the October Golden Week.
GGRAsia’s hotel survey also showed there had been a decline – between Monday and Thursday – in room rates for hotel stays during the Golden Week period. Many of the 25 hotels surveyed were now offering stays in a standard room for less than HKD2,000 (US$257) for most of the days of the October Golden Week, according to information available in their respective online booking engines.
The 25 hotels surveyed were: Grand Lisboa and Grand Lisboa Palace, promoted by SJM Holdings Ltd; MGM Macau, and MGM Cotai’s M Tower and Emerald Tower, promoted by MGM China Holdings Ltd; Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace, run by Wynn Macau Ltd; Nüwa, Morpheus and Grand Hyatt Macau at City of Dreams Macau, Studio City and Altira in Taipa, all promoted by Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd; Galaxy Hotel, Banyan Tree Macau, Hotel Okura Macau, The Ritz-Carlton, Macau, and JW Marriott Hotel Macau at the Galaxy Macau complex, as well as StarWorld Hotel, all promoted by Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd; Sands Macao located in the Macau peninsula, Venetian Macao, Parisian Macao, St Regis Macao, The Londoner Hotel, Conrad Macao and Four Seasons Hotel Macao, all promoted by Sands China Ltd.
Macau’s flag-carrier airline, Air Macau, meanwhile announced the cancellation of a number of flights originally scheduled for the October Golden Week holiday period. Cancellations included flights connecting Macau to the city of Chengdu, Hangzhou, Nanning, Beijing, and Shanghai, all in mainland China.
