Chinese New Year in Macau was something to celebrate—up to a point. According to Vitaly Umansky of Bernstein Research, gaming revenues of US$250 million for the week were up 63 percent over the same week in January. However, that was still down 66 percent from 2019 and 41 percent from 2020.
Holiday travel to Macau was up 25.4 percent over the prior year, but down more than 91 percent from 2019.
Thanks to Macau’s strict “zero-tolerance” Covid policy, Macau has registered no locally transmitted viral cases since October. So the SAR marked the Year of the Tiger the traditional way: with dragon and lion parades, floats, communal cycling events and live street shows. To mark the Beijing Olympics, a fireworks display included the shape of the five multicolored Olympic rings.
As for gaming, MGM China President and COO Hubert Wang said, “We were very satisfied with the Chinese New Year performance in the mass segment where we reached 85 percent of the pre-pandemic level in terms of mass volume, measured by table drop. That’s encouraging.”
Linda Chen, Wynn Macau vice chairwoman and COO, said the occupancy rate at the company’s two Macau resorts reached 99 percent or more. “The overall performance has matched our expectations,” she told the Macau News Agency.
But Macau Hotel Association Vice Chairman Rutger Verschuren said room rates held steady at January’s level, rather than the higher rates that would normally be expected during the holidays.
“Usually, the CNY is the time when we can have a good business room rate, but this year we were just using the room rates we had in mid-January, low weekday room rates,” he said. “There’s not enough demand to crank up the room rates to even the weekend rates. Most hotels have extremely low prices in the market just to attract visitors to stay.”
Meanwhile, the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) has issued a statement about three strategies it will implement to encourage tourism this year. They include strengthening online and offline promotions; promoting tourism as it relates to MICE, sports, culture and so on; and promoting tours in Macau and Hengqin, branding the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area as a single regional destination.
