DSEC: Hotel industry recovers in 2016

Revenues in the hotel sector increased by 9.3 percent year-on-year to MOP28.47 billion in 2016, recovering from the decline in 2015. According to Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) data released yesterday, the hotel industry expenditure grew by 13.5 percent year-on-year to MOP26.61 billion, of which compensation of employees (MOP11.93 billion), operating expenses (MOP11.78 billion) and purchase of goods & commission paid (MOP2.89 billion) rose by 14.2 percent, 13.8 percent and 9.3 percent respectively.

In 2016, the number of operating hotels and guesthouses increased by 2 year-on-year to 109, including 77 hotels and 32 guesthouses. The number of persons engaged in the sector grew by 9.6 percent to 49,628; among them, 27,204 were engaged in the eight hotels that have 1,500 workers or more, a growth of 19.8 percent year-on-year.

The total revenue of 5-star hotels grew by 2.2 percent year-on-year to MOP21.92 billion, with room sales (MOP9.85 billion) being the major source of receipts, up by 1 percent.

The revenues of hotels from online business (including bookings of hotel rooms and tickets) totalled to MOP1.18 billion. Meanwhile, expenditure of 5-star hotels (MOP 20.3 billion) increased by 6.1 percent year-on-year,  according to DSEC.

Gross Value Added, which measures the sectoral contribution to the economy, rebounded from the decline in 2015 and rose by 7.6 percent year-on-year to MOP14.21 billion.