Gaming analysts are bullish on Macau for 2023, with the end of Beijing’s draconian zero-Covid policy and a resulting spike in tourism.
According to Fantini Research, the year got off to a great start, with the end of strict Covid policies on January 8 followed by Golden Week, the annual Chinese New Year celebration that began January 22. The holiday brought tourists in droves to the city, for estimated daily arrivals exceeding 60,000.
The Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) reported February 11 that a total of 451,000 visitors visited the city during this year’s Chinese New Year Golden Week, or 64,000 visitors per day, three times the volume in 2022.
MGTO Deputy Director Cheng Wai Tong said international flights are coming back, “but the number of flights is still relatively low, making it difficult to attract overseas visitors to Macau. If the capacity of flights is restored, I believe the first phase of overseas visitors will be mainly from Southeast Asia.”
As MGM Resorts Chairman and CEO Bill Hornbuckle noted in a recent fourth-quarter earnings call, the industry rebound during Chinese New Year “was pretty much instant,” with mass gaming volumes at “100 percent” of pre-pandemic levels, in 2019.
As reported by Inside Asian Gaming, Wynn Resorts also saw mass table drop return to 95 percent of pre-Covid levels.
Rob Goldstein, chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., also delivered good news. In the aftermath of CNY, he said, “We’re past the break-even point; we’re now in the positive territory. We are in very positive territory and keep moving upside.”
GGRAsia quoted the CEO as saying some holiday revelers couldn’t “get a seat” at table games, which were “running at 95 percent to 100 percent capacity—and it’s the same on slots and electronic table games.”
Demand for gaming, casino foot traffic and minimum bets held strong following the Chinese New Year, analysts agreed. JP Morgan analyst DS Kim said gaming revenue could hit US$1.17 billion in February—up to a 45 percent recovery from pre-Covid levels, and a 60 percent to 70 percent recovery in mass market gaming revenue.
The MICE segment—for meetings, incentives, conferences and events—could also grow over the course of the year, with up to 1,000 such gatherings, according to the city’s Trade and Investment Promotion Institute.
Some 6,000 Mainland China residents are expected to attend 15 events scheduled through March. Events in the second quarter should draw 10,000 visitors, said UU Sang, president of the institute, per the Macau News. The third and fourth quarters are typically higher for meetings, said Sang.
As Goldstein noted, with Covid apparently in the rearview mirror, the future looks bright for Macau and its primary industry. “If things keep going as they’re going, we’ll be in a very happy place in 2023, especially in the summer and the second half of the year, as normal travel patterns resume [and] Hong Kong gets back on speed,” Goldstein said.
He added that there’s “a lot of growth potential” in Mainland China, the main feeder market for Macau gaming.
