China’s restoration of the Individual Visit Scheme appears to be injecting some long-awaited momentum into visitation to Macau.
The IVS, which allows mainland Chinese residents to visit Macau as individuals rather than as part of group tours and is seen as key to the casino industry’s recovery, was reinstituted across neighboring Guangdong province on August 26. The following weekend, visitation to Macau crept upward to 22,700, an increase of 2,700 from the previous weekend. Analysts are now tracking daily visits at an average of 14,000-plus, almost triple the volume of a month ago.
Not surprisingly, with the visas slated to be extended across all of China later this month, the industry is hoping for a big revenue boost over the October 1 “Golden Week” holiday.
The IVS was suspended in January when Covid-19 began spilling out of China, where it was first identified in December. Combined with a range of travel restrictions imposed on both sides of the border to contain its spread, the effect was to decimate visitation to Macau, which has fallen 84 percent compared with the first half of last year.
The territory’s world-leading gaming revenues, US$36 billion in 2019, have fallen more than 90 percent. Analysts expect September’s take to be down by 85 percent or so, but that would be a sizable improvement over the 90-plus percentage declines seen in May, June and July.
More positive news has been reported from Macau International Airport, which announced that flights increased in August by 30 percent over July.
The facility’s principal carrier, Air Macau, added three more routes in China during the month for a total of 11 and said it expects six more cities to join the list this month along with more flights to and from Beijing and Shanghai.
