GGRAsia – Welcome mat, pricey hotels drag Macau MICE: sector

Welcome mat, pricey hotels drag Macau MICE: sector

Dec 01, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Fresh event space in casino resorts is welcomed by Macau’s meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) sector, but visitors’ reception on arrival in the city, high hotel prices, and the difficulty of moving around remain a drag on post-pandemic recovery, say leaders of the trade in respective comments to GGRAsia.

It might be “one or two more years” before the Macau MICE sector sees the number of events and scale of attendance recover to 2019-level, remarked Alan Ho Hoi Meng, chairman of the Macao Association of Convention, Exhibition and Tourism Sectors.

In 2019, Macau had 1,536 MICE events – mostly meetings and conferences – with just over 2 million people involved either as professionals or general attendees, according to data published by the city’s Statistics and Census Service.

“Initially we expected that there would be 1,000 MICE events hosted in Macau this year,” but the final tally is likely to be 1,100, said Mr Ho. For 2024, he expects a “20 to 30 percent” year-on-year rise in the number of events.

In July the authorities said they were looking in particular at boosting the number of events drawing visitors from the wider region or from even further afield, via a working group set up with the city’s six casino operators. In August it emerged the city had set a target to boost 2024 MICE volume to at least 1,500 gatherings.

Via the working group, each casino firm – by collaborating with the local MICE trade bodies – would be expected to bid during the course of a year, for events accredited by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), Mr Ho explained.

Some of the casino operators do already “extend certain discount offers for hotel stay for the MICE packages we organise,” Mr Ho noted.

First impressions count

But for all MICE visitors, “the experience on arrival” to the city currently “is weak,” suggested Bruno Simões, president of the Macau Meetings, Incentives And Special Events Association.

He cited as examples “no assistance before immigration, and no assistance at taxi stands or buses”.

Mr Simões added: “The infrastructure when [visitors] get out of the border ports or airport is average,” in terms of “lighting, signage, and information available: I would say mediocre.”

He observed “we just need to look at Hong Kong as an example,” of how to do things more efficiently. “The first impression of the city is super important. The first impression of Macau [for visitors] is not to the standard ‘international city of tourism and leisure’, he stated, citing a local-government aspiration to expand the volume of visitors from beyond China.

Recently at the city’s Legislative Assembly, Raimundo do Rosário, Macau’s Secretary for Transport and Public Works, said that even an extra 500 taxi licences – each of eight-year duration – being offered via public tender, would “not” be enough to fix a local shortage of such transport.

Macau typically has tens of thousands of visitors daily. While many use public buses or casino resort shuttles to move around, as of end-September, Macau had 1,566 taxis inclusive of special taxis for disabled people. That is according to data from the Transport Bureau.

One key way that Macau could stand out to the wider world in terms of its MICE business, is by taking advantage of the city’s impressive historic settings, suggested Mr Simões. These places – many of them government-managed or overseen – could be used as “special venues for private events” off-site from a main MICE gathering.

“The government says it’s possible, but I don’t recall seeing a private event at these [historic] venues,” Mr Simões stated.

Mr Ho noted that the quality of purpose-built MICE facilities – especially within the large-scale casino resorts on Cotai – was “world class”, and a strength for the city. A number of new arenas and meeting venues has opened since the lifting of Covid-19 related restrictions at the start of the year. “This new supply, we believe, can drive new demand,” he told GGRAsia.

Nonetheless, challenges that the sector mentioned prior to the pandemic, are back in play. “Rooms are taken by the casinos,” said Mr Simões, referring to gamblers reportedly getting priority for hotel space at casino resorts. “The rooms available [for MICE organisers], are much more expensive,” than in other MICE markets,” and “price is the key for competitiveness,” in that sector, he suggested.

Pricey rooms, labour challenges

The average nightly room rate across Macau’s three-star, four-star and five-star hotels was MOP1,313.9 (US$163.9) for the first ten months of this year, similar to the same period in 2019.

Mr Ho noted in his commentary: “One way to deal with the issue, is that we have tried to organise events during weekdays, as the casino resort operators tend to reserve more rooms for their patrons during Fridays through to the weekends.”

In late October, the Macau authorities said that as of the third quarter, 3,137 extra hotel rooms were under construction in the city. Separately, Macau’s Chief Executive, Ho Iat Seng, has said he would like to see a greater amount of lower-end space for mass-market visitors.

Some Macau MICE attendees could be housed in cheaper hotels on Hengqin Island, a piece of mainland China territory next door to Cotai.

The mainland authorities have already flagged a scheme for mainland residents to be able to travel freely between Hengqin and Macau for the duration of a single mainland exit-visa approval, if they want to travel to MICE events co-hosted by Hengqin and Macao. “The policy is already in place, it is just pending implementation details,” said MICE industry representative Mr Ho.

Another major challenge of the local MICE sector is having a workforce of sufficient size and with necessary skills, following almost three years of pandemic-associated standstill, Mr Ho and Mr Simões respectively suggested to GGRAsia.

Mr Ho observed: “Before Covid-19, Macau had around 3,600 people working in the [MICE] sector,” according to his association’s survey. “We lost around 1,000 of those during the pandemic. Now as businesses are coming back, the sector is competing for hands.”