Hotel Occupancy on the Rise in Macau

Sat, Dec 5, 2020

The key metric has climbed past 40 percent in another clear sign that momentum is building behind the market’s recovery from the Covid crisis. Visitation and gaming revenues are in the ascendant as well as China’s restoration of tourist visas begins to make its impacts felt.

Hotel Occupancy on the Rise in Macau

Hotel occupancy rates in Macau are climbing past 40 percent as the market’s recovery from the Covid crisis continues to show steady improvement.

The latest figures available from the Macao Government Tourism Office pegged occupancy in the 33 percent – 45 percent range through early November, continuing October’s momentum, when China’s restoration of visas for individual tourist travel began to hit its stride and occupancy increased to 42.8 percent overall.

Though well below October 2019’s 88.6 percent, it was the sector’s best month since March and a vast improvement over September’s 16.4 percent.

Room rates have showed a corresponding rise, from MOP789 to MOP1,039, with five-star hotels averaging MOP1,291, four-star hotels at MOP331 and three-star hotels up from MOP654 to MOP786, according to the MGTO’s survey of 38 properties listed as members of the Macau Hotel Association.

The city reported some 582,000 visitor arrivals for the month, a 29.6 percent jump from September.

Gaming revenue was up 229 percent, hitting MOP7.27 billion (US$911 million), bringing the total through the first 10 months to MOP45.88 billion ($5.75 billion), down 81 percent from the same period last year.