Christmas brings strong visitor numbers and bookings to Macau casinos
Christmas is not a big holiday in China. But on December 25 and the days before and after, Macau, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China, was still busy.
The Macau SAR Government Tourism Office (MGTO) said in an update released on Wednesday that the enclave's hotel room occupancy rate was close to 91% between December 23 and 26.
There are approximately 45,700 hotel rooms in Macau. The city's casinos account for the majority of rental housing.
The 90.8% occupancy rate represents a 2.7% increase over the same three-night period in 2022. According to Macau's Statistics and Census Service, the region recorded "more than 456,000" tourist arrivals during the four-day period in question, or about 114,000 per day.
The Chinese government discourages the celebration of religious holidays, especially Christian holidays. However, the People's Republic of China recognizes five official religions: Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Christianity, and Catholicism. The most popular is Buddhism; it is estimated to be practiced by 185 to 250 million people.
Since Macau and Hong Kong implement the "one country, two systems" principle, which makes the two special administrative regions somewhat independent from Beijing, these regions are more popular Christmas destinations than many mainland cities.
Both Macau and Hong Kong have a stronger Christmas atmosphere, which is attractive to mainland Chinese tourists," said analyst Hoffmann Ma.
Jack Ma said that Hong Kong is also an important gateway to Macau during Christmas.
Macau rebounds
2023 marks the beginning of Macau’s COVID-19 recovery, more than three years after the coronavirus allegedly originated in Wuhan, China.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is sticking to his controversial "zero-Covid" response strategy, which has been harshly criticized by foreign leaders. The policy, which called for sporadic lockdowns after new clusters of cases were discovered, was eventually scrapped by Xi in early December 2022 after widespread protests.
Eliminating "zero COVID" allows the Chinese people to "move more freely" across China and its two special administrative regions. Macau, desperate for tourists, seized the opportunity, and gambling slowly revived.
In the eleven months of 2023, Macau's six commercial casino operators collectively won more than $20.4 billion from players. While up 325% compared to the same period in 2022, gaming profits accounted for approximately 61% of the market’s total revenue from January to November 2019.
JPMorgan market watchers who focus on Macau's gaming market forecast profits of $2.11 billion in December. If realized, full-year 2023 GGR would be approximately $22.51 billion, or about 62% of 2019 profits (which totaled $36.3 billion).
In 2022, approximately 5.7 million tourists will pass through the Macao border. As of November 2023, visitor numbers reached nearly 25.3 million.
All-out large-scale competition
JPMorgan’s December GGR forecast report for Macau suggests large-scale gaming could return to 2019 levels. The revenue loss is largely due to VIP entertainment groups no longer bringing large numbers of high-rollers to the city after Beijing ordered law enforcement to closely monitor the industry.
“Mass GGR is operating at approximately 100% speed,” a J.P. Morgan press release details.
Macau is transforming its tourist destination and adding non-gaming attractions. Six casino operators last year pledged to invest $13.5 billion in non-gaming projects by 2033.
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Source: www.casino.org
