Hotel occupancy to surpass 90% by the year-end, MGTO claims

The occupancy rate of the local hotels should surpass 90% by the end of this year, the director of the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, told the media on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the “International Cities of Gastronomy Fest, Macao” at the Macau Fisherman’s Wharf.

Senna Fernandes said that while the current hotel occupancy rate is about 85-86%, there are indicators that this rate will grow further in the second half of this year and surpass 90% by the year-end.

The same official also noted the important results obtained so far in the reattraction of foreign visitors to Macau in the first five months of this year.

According to Senna Fernandes who cited provisional data collected up to May this year, the number of international tourists visiting Macau was approximately 978,000, with an average of more than 6,400 visitors per day. This figure represents a year-on-year increase of 1.75 times and a recovering to nearly 67% of the 2019 figure.

Some 14 million tourists have entered Macau from January to May this year, more than 93,000 tourists per day on average, which is an 82.5% recovery from 2019.

Hong Kong tourism numbers have recovered the fastest with 2.98 million visitors, a recovery rate of 97.1% of the pre-pandemic level, followed by those from the mainland (9.90 million), which has recovered some 81%.

The number of tourists from Taiwan has reached some 324,000, recovering to 73.4%.

Addressing the recent promotion campaign by Macau in Thailand, the same official noted that in this year alone there has been an influx of about 65,000 tourists from Thailand, a figure that corresponds to over 80% of 2019 data.

She said the return of 45 weekly flights between Macau and Thailand contributed to this excellent result, adding that if airliners increase the frequency of flights this year, there will be an increase in Thai tourists to Macau.

Commenting on the recent news of limits to the distribution of free snacks and drinks by the gaming concessionaires, Senna Fernandes said that stopping this practice would not impact visitor figures. She said it is not the purpose of the government to “attract tourists that come to receive gifts.”

Recently speaking about hotel occupancy, Senna Fernandes said that Macau would start promoting stays in hotels in Hengqin, namely to mainland groups, to tackle the issue of local hotel units reaching full capacity and to offer this type of visitors accommodation options that better suit their purpose and budget.