The consolidated average occupancy rate of most three- to five-star hotels in Macau rose in the first half to only 10.3 percentage points below the equivalent period in 2019, i.e., a period before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The data – released by the Macao Government Tourism Bureau (MGTO) – are based on 44 establishments that are members of the Macau Hotel Association. Most of the city’s five-star hotels are within the city’s casino resorts.
The overall three- to five-star occupancy rate over the first six months this year was 82.0 percent, compared to 92.3 percent in the first half 2019. The average nightly room rate up to June 30 this year was MOP1,247.0 (US$155.04), just shy of 8.0 percent below first-half 2019’s MOP1,354.8.
Travel in and out of Macau was only normalised in January this year, after nearly three years of pandemic-related restrictions.
In first-half 2022, the average occupancy rate was only 40.2 percent, and the average nightly rate MOP788.2. That meant the first-half 2023 numbers were a 41.8 percentage point improvement in occupancy rate, and 58.2 percent advance in room rate.
In the opening six months of this year, the highest occupancy rate was in the three-star segment, at 88.7 percent, and an average room rate of MOP937.8.
The best year-on-year boost in first-half room rate was in the four-star category, which was up 117.5 percent, and actually lower than the three-star rate, being MOP937.1, with an occupancy rate of 77.4 percent.
Five-star rates made the lowest year-on-year gains, at 49.1 percent of first-half 2022’s, and a cost of MOP1,408.6. The occupancy rate in the opening six months this year in that category was 81.7 percent.
Macau’s hotel occupancy rate could average “over 80 percent” and up to “90 percent” in July and August, said earlier this month the director of MGTO, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes.
