Cotai hotels benefit from holidays amid gradual decline in arrivals

The eight-day National Day holiday is breaking post-pandemic records as it marks the first Golden week in three years where Chinese travelers are free to travel without border restrictions.

Current entry and exit data are exceeding local government expectations of 100,000. However, the question remains as to whether the numbers will align with the expectations of local businesses, particularly in the hotel industry.

Despite slow growth, high youth unemployment, and a property market in crisis on the mainland, Macau has already welcomed more than 859,000 visitors in the first seven days of the holiday period. The majority of visitors have come from the mainland.

However, the numbers slowly started to decline from Friday’s peak, the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, through yesterday.

Hotels in Cotai appear to be the biggest beneficiaries, with occupancy rates of up to 95%, according to industry representatives.

“By Wednesday onwards, the rates have gone back to normal weekday rates,” said Rutger Verschuren, vice-chairman of the Macau Hotel Association. 

Speaking on the sidelines of a press briefing at Artyzen Grand Lapa yesterday, Verschuren, who heads the resort, said current arrival numbers show signs of recovery, following a tourism boost during the summer holidays.

“There was a lot of potential for Cotai hotels and casinos of course [with all] these new products in town. We’re happy to see everyone putting in so much effort to bring back business,” he told the Times.

However, neighboring regions are also offering newer attractions, such as the Chimelong Spaceship Theme Park in Hengqin, which recently set seven Guinness World Records.

The new entertainment facility in Hengqin was designed by US-based theme park group Legacy Entertainment, and has an enclosed area of 397,064 square meters, surpassing previous record holder Warner Brothers Abu Dhabi.

With comparatively higher local hotel rates in Macau, some tourists are opting to stay in Zhuhai or visit new attractions in Hengqin.

Verschuren noted, “The rates [for this holiday] are quite reasonable. It is just difficult to have a proper pricing strategy as we did not know what the demand would be. You don’t know how many are actually going to stay over.”

“Zhuhai prices are lower than Macau’s, and Hengqin has enormous attraction. So, there are a lot of people who are only making day trips to Macau,” Verschuren added.

More than 21 million Chinese people will fly during the 10-day break that began on Friday last week, according to China’s civil aviation regulator.

This includes 14,000 domestic flights a day, as budget-conscious young Chinese tourists explore destinations closer to home.

Most people still have some reservations about travelling beyond China, as many also opt to travel within the mainland to visit families during the year’s longest holiday.

according to analytics firms, ForwardKeys, as its data shows outbound travels down 40% when compared with 2019.