Hotel industry expects 20% more guests on May 1 Golden Week

Although it has benefitted from a boost of holiday mood, the local hotel industry did not report a massive leap in occupancy rate across the most recent holiday festival. However, it is eyeing the seven-day holiday, starting May 1, on the mainland for a further boost.
This past five-day long weekend in Macau, alongside a three-day holiday period in mainland China, did not lead to a significant change in the local hotel occupancy rate, according to the local hotel industry. However, with the major May 1 holidays arriving in less than a month, the industry is forecasting a 20% rise on the basis of the occupancy rate in March.
It must be taken into account that the past three-day holidays in mainland China were not for Easter. The festival has not been made a public holiday on the Mainland. The holiday period was for the Ching Ming Festival, a day traditionally for remembering deceased relatives. As such, it has not been a popular holiday for leisure travel.
Pre-Covid time, when there were no border restrictions, many local hotels relied on tourists from Hong Kong to support revenues over the Easter weekend. The industry admitted that this year the boost was a little weak because there were almost no tourists from Hong Kong.
The industry cited a mild relapse in the Yunnan Province as the grounds for further observation. If the relapse is successfully contained within a small region and does not affect other parts of the country, the May 1 holiday period should bring good news to Macau.
Some business personages reminded the government to make good use of the collaborations with the two Mainland IT giants – Alibaba and Tencent – in the upgrade to smart city and smart travel. They see it as an advantageous move to improve local tourism performances.