Macau’s average daily rate for casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) in the first five days of June was up 11 percent from the average recorded for full May, estimated a Monday note from brokerage Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd.
The institution said – citing its own channel checks – the average daily rate for the relevant period was MOP120 million (US$14.8 million), “double week-on-week from the MOP60 million during May 23-31”. The month-to-date daily average was down 45 percent from the prior-year period, said the note from analysts Vitaly Umansky, Louis Li and Shirley Yang.
“VIP volume and mass GGR marginally improved from May 2022, with normal VIP hold-rate,” added the Sanford Bernstein team.
The institution said the week-on-week increase in daily revenue “was supported by relaxed Covid measures and a holiday weekend” in Macau.
Since June 2, people intending to travel to Macau from neighbouring Guangdong province, in mainland China, must hold a nucleic acid test certificate issued within seven days proving they are ‘negative’ for Covid-19 infection. That was a relaxation from the previously-maintained 72 hours.
In terms of Covid-19 cases in mainland China – a phenomenon perceived as having dampened on occasion recently mainland consumer demand for trips to Macau – the brokerage observed that China’s reported Covid-19 cases “have now come down to circa 1 percent of the peak level in mid-April, with most cities having ended lockdown but implemented regular mass-testing measures for all residents.”
“With China’s Covid situation stabilising and border measures relaxed, Macau’s MGTO has pushed discounts on air tickets and hotel rates, and planed a series of ‘Macau Week’ roadshow events in China to boost the mainland visitation in the coming summer,” stated the brokerage.
On Friday, the director of the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, said she hoped the number of visitors to Macau could increase to nearly 40,000 a day, following the relaxation of the Covid-19 test rule for visitors arriving from Guangdong.
The tourism bureau boss said also that the Macau authorities were planning a “Macao Week” promotional event to be held in Qingdao, Shandong province, in August. The MGTO was considering holding similar roadshows elsewhere in the mainland in the second half of the year, she added.
In its Monday note, Sanford Bernstein forecast the average daily rate for June GGR to be up 46 percent from May, but said the result could “be lower if travel does not pick up during the month.”
