GGRAsia – Oct Golden Week Macau visit tally beats 2019 holiday by 2pct

Oct Golden Week Macau visit tally beats 2019 holiday by 2pct

Oct 08, 2024 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Macau’s visitor tally for October Golden Week beat the pre-pandemic 2019 aggregate by nearly 2.0 percent, according to data released on Tuesday by the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO).

The visitor volume for the seven-day mainland China break that ran this year from October 1 to October 7 inclusive, was 993,117. In 2019, the tally for the seven-day break was 974,337, according to MGTO archived figures.

The daily average for this year’s October holiday break was 141,873, up 22.9 percent from the prior-year period.

Analyst Vitaly Umansky of Seaport Research Partners had mentioned in a Monday note, even before the final day figures were in, that the daily average had already been “well above the 100,000 per day initially forecasted by the Macao Government Tourism Office”.

Mainland visitors during this year’s festivities accounted for 826,181 arrivals, or 83.2 percent of the total.

Visitors from Hong Kong accounted for 117,009 arrivals, or 11.8 percent of the total, according to MGTO figures.

Mr Umansky said in his Monday note that for the first six days of this year’s break: “The daily average GGR [gross gaming revenue] of MOP1,080 million (over US$134 million) is just 7 percent lower than the daily average during [October] Golden Week 2019 (when VIP was over 35 percent of GGR), and 30 percent over last year.”

Macau’s GGR daily run-rate for the initial six days of the break was the highest in five years, judged also JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd in a Monday memo, citing its channel checks, and also putting it at MOP1.08 billion.

Citigroup and CLSA Ltd had respectively mentioned in recent notes – based on field visits during the holidays – that bet sizes and bet volume had been strong during October Golden Week.