GGRAsia – Labour hols Macau GGR, room rates likely below 2019: MS

Labour hols Macau GGR, room rates likely below 2019: MS

Apr 24, 2024 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

This year’s Labour Day holiday season in the Macau casino market is likely to produce daily gross gaming revenue (GGR) of MOP800 million (US$99.1 million) to MOP850 million, which would be “73 to 77 percent of the 2019 level” for the equivalent holiday, said a Tuesday note from brokerage Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd.

It added that such a daily GGR figure would also be “5 to 10 percent below the 2024 Chinese New Year level,” a reference to the peak lunar new season that this time was a holiday on the Chinese mainland for eight days from February 10 to February 17.

Morgan Stanley said that another indicator of Macau casino tourism demand – average daily room rate – was tracking at about 80 percent of the level recorded for the 2019 Labour Day holiday season.

The Labour Day holiday period is often referred to as ‘May Golden Week’.

“The average daily rate for the majority of hotels is tracking 20 percent weaker than during 2024 Chinese New Year and 2019 May Golden Week,” wrote analysts Praveen Choudhary and Gareth Leung.

The institution said its survey of 28 Macau hotels was done on Monday, and covered seven travel nights from April 30 to May 6 inclusive. This represented a period one day before the five-day Chinese mainland holiday starts on May 1, extending to one day after the official holiday period on the mainland.

The survey’s average daily rates referred to the cost of a standard room.

GGRAsia’s Tuesday snapshot survey on Labour Day-holidays demand – looking at official booking sites for luxury hotels in Macau casino resorts – indicated that 11 out of 32 local luxury hotel towers, most of them establishments at Cotai casino resorts, were indicating all five nights of the break as fully booked.

GGRAsia’s search focused on the standard room category with either a king bed or two beds, accommodating two adults.

Morgan Stanley observed regarding specific Macau casino operators: “MGM China [Holdings Ltd] looks better than peers, as both of its properties show growth versus Chinese New Year [2024] and [May] 2019 in average daily [hotel] rate and/or occupancy level.” MGM China runs MGM Macau on the city’s peninsula, and MGM Cotai in the newer casino district.

The brokerage added: “Sands [China Ltd] hotels – Venetian, Four Seasons, Parisian – seem to be experiencing a bigger decline in average daily [room] rate and occupancy than peers: this could be partly due to renovation.” The latter was a reference to renovation works currently taking place at some of Sands China’s properties.

Morgan Stanley further noted: “[Macau] Peninsula hotels, such as Mandarin Oriental, Wynn Macau, and Sands Macao, seem to be showing a bigger decline in average daily rate and occupancy than peers.”