The Chinese gaming hub of Macau is enjoying a return of post-Covid travel, but the recovery could be dampened by a labor shortage in the hospitality sector, including hotels and casinos.
According to GGRAsia, the problem is most acute in front-of-house hotel jobs that once were held by non-resident workers. Those positions could be hard to fill, because the documentation for non-resident workers is more complex and takes more time than that for hiring Macau ID-holders.
“During the pandemic, casino resorts [operated] with minimum staffing, but with the sudden surge in business, there is a high demand” for positions related to hotel operations, said Jiji Tu, executive director at MSS Recruitment.
Filling positions for “housekeeping, such as cleaners and room attendants, are amongst the priorities,” added Luís Herédia, president of the Macau Hotel Association. “So are jobs such as concierges and chefs.
“Engineers, gardeners, administrators, and sales and marketing” people are also in demand, he said. “Some hotels are yet to fully resume their food and beverage services, pending receipt of extra hands.”
The government and the industry “are still addressing the labor shortage issue, [but] it did not appear to cause significant disruptions to gaming operators, even during the busiest days of Chinese New Year based on on-the-ground observations,” wrote HSBC gaming research analysts Charlene Liu, Jessie Lu, and Lauren Cai in a February 21 note.
In positive news for the city and its chief industry, February tourism numbers were even better than January’s record-breaking figures. The city saw an average of 56,208 daily visitors from February 1-19, as well as 75.5 percent hotel occupancy from February 1-16. According to Asia Gaming Brief, January beat all expectations with a daily average of 45,400 visitors and hotel occupancy of 72.8 percent.
But in a fourth-quarter earnings call, Grant Chum, chief operating officer of Sands China Ltd., said the U.S. company’s Macau business is still dealing with staff shortfalls.
“We’re still only about two-thirds of the way through in terms of ability of manpower to operate the whole hotel” at Londoner Court, part of the group’s new Londoner resort on Cotai.
Prior to the Chinese New Year celebration, typically a busy time for Macau tourism, Rutger Verschuren, vice-chairman of the Macau Hotel Association, told the Macau Daily Times that applicants weren’t exactly fighting for available jobs. “Regretfully, few people have shown interest due to the physical nature of the work and the hours/days and modest pay,” he said.
From June to August 2022, unemployment among locals rose 5.5 percent, the highest level since 2008, the Times reported. But non-resident workers are always harder to come by, as they must have their visas processed at home before coming to Macau, and companies must apply for new quotas before they can hire, a process that can take several weeks.
“The quotas of the blue card-holders who left during the pandemic have mostly been canceled since the quota has not been filled for several months, and so far, not many quotas have been reinstated or are still in the process of being reinstated,” Verschuren told the newspaper.
Meanwhile, a tourism industry expert told Asia Gaming Brief that Macau is looking for a spike in non-gaming visitor spend for the year, though it may not reach the levels enjoyed in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Max Zhao, director of the School of Tourism Management of the Macao Institute for Tourism Studies, said the city is now “trying to capture more international visitors,” diversifying the customer base and giving them more to do and experience.
Official data shows that, last year, non-gaming visitor spend dropped almost 26 percent to MOP18.17 billion (US$2.25 billion). Just 5.7 million tourists visited the city in that year, down 26 percent from 2019 due to the pandemic. Even so, per capita spend grew 96 percent. In fact, Zhao noted, per-capita visitor spend grew even during the pandemic years, and visitors also stayed longer, in keeping with the government’s goal to make Macau more than a day-trip destination for gamblers.
“If the expenditure can keep the same rhythm, with higher per-capita spending this year, I have a very optimistic outlook for Macau’s rebound,” Zhao told AGB.
He added, “The results from Chinese New Year are satisfying, and the return of Hong Kong visitors has truly helped diversify the Macau tourism demographic, but we should be conscious that the Chinese market is now open to the whole world.”
As other countries open up, he said, drawing more international tourism “will be a true challenge for Macau’s competitiveness.”
