GGRAsia – Maybe 70k Macau visitors daily in May hols: tourism boss

Maybe 70k Macau visitors daily in May hols: tourism boss

Apr 25, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Macau’s tourism boss says the city might receive a daily average of “70,000” visitors “or more” during the upcoming holidays encompassing Labour Day on May 1.

Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes (pictured in a file photo), director of the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO), was speaking to the local media on Tuesday.

She noted that Macau had already recorded on average over recent days, “over 60,000″ visitor arrivals.

The official also mentioned that for the holiday – designated by China’s State Council as running from April 29 to May 3 inclusive – average hotel occupancy daily might reach “80 to 90 percent”.

What percentage of rooms are currently available for open sale in Macau hotels within casino resorts has been a topic of discussion among investment analysts, citing labour constraints in the market. Sands China Ltd recently said that in the first quarter it had available about 69 percent of its room inventory.

The MGTO director’s Tuesday comments were on the sidelines of an event hosted by another Macau operator, Wynn Macau Ltd.

Linda Chen, vice chairman and an executive director of Wynn Macau Ltd, said at the same occasion, she was hopeful of a “high” occupancy rate for the firm’s two Macau properties, Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace in Cotai – during the Labour Day break, without mentioning a specific forecast.

She also said hotel rooms at the firm’s two Macau properties had been “fully operational” since the easing of Covid-19 related restrictions at the turn of the year.

Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace are among the five-star Macau properties reporting they are full for most of the nights of the upcoming holiday, according to a GGRAsia review of search engines for local luxury hotels. Most of the city’s five-star properties are in casino resorts.

As of Monday, out of 19 five-star hotels, 12 were reporting standard rooms were no longer available for at least four of the five nights of the festivities.

They included: Grand Lisboa, a Macau peninsula property promoted by SJM Holdings Ltd; MGM Macau and MGM Cotai, promoted by MGM China Holdings Ltd; Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace, promoted by Wynn Macau Ltd; and the hotels Nüwa and Morpheus at City of Dreams Macau, promoted by Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd.

Others mostly booked up were: Galaxy Hotel, Banyan Tree Macau, The Ritz-Carlton, Macau, and JW Marriott Hotel Macau at Galaxy Macau complex, promoted by Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd; and the Four Seasons Hotel Macao, promoted by Sands China Ltd.

The all-suite Londoner Macao Hotel – part of Sands China’s The Londoner Macao complex – also saw the first four nights of the Labour Day holiday fully booked. The Macau tourism authority does not classify Londoner Macao Hotel as a five-star hotel.