MGTO hopes for 60% hotel occupancy amid further extended NAT validity
With further easing of disease control measures, the head of the city’s tourism board hopes the hotel occupancy rate will reach 60% over the coming Labor Day holiday period.
The validity for nucleic acid test (NAT) results for border-crossing purposes was extended to 72 hours, effective yesterday.
The Labor Day holiday period now amounts to five days in duration.
Speaking on her forecast, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, director of the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), said yesterday that she is confident about its leverage in attracting more tourists to Macau.
“I believe this is everybody’s hope too,” Senna Fernandes said. She also called for the public to encourage their friends and relatives from across the border to visit Macau during the holiday period.
Senna Fernandes added that the tourism board has no plans to extend or schedule extra sessions of the drone show that will be staged during the Labor Day weekend, in consideration of the “uniqueness” of each show.
There will be eight 15-minute sessions. Each session will be unique, even if they are staged in the same evening, Senna Fernandes explained.
Despite the hopes of the head of the tourism board, the extension to the NAT validity has not supported the stock quotes of the six operators of local casinos.
Yesterday, the percentage points of stock quotes fell from between 2.26% to 5.5%, with Sands China Ltd. leading the fall. Galaxy Entertainment Group, meanwhile, braced well and berthed at the decrease rate of 2.26%. It also achieved the highest stock quote – at HKD43.2 – among the six operators.
The market is still in a watchful mode despite the extension of NAT result validity, which has initially benefitted locals and non-resident workers (TNRs) living on the other side of the border.
Local broadcaster TDM reported that some TNRs had described the extension as convenient, since they will no longer need to take the NAT as frequently as they did a week ago.
Previously, when the Covid-19 condition of Zhuhai was more intense, residents were required to take NATs every day. The test was free-of-charge, and the results could be used for border-crossing purposes, the Times was told. This is different from the case in Macau, where free-of-charge NAT results are not eligible for such purposes.
Some tourists also said that they would consider visiting Macau more, mainly because they find Macau “quite safe, [and] controlling the spread of the disease well.” They even complimented Macau for “being distinctive on a national scale.”
Relatively inexpensive hotel prices are also a factor that draw tourists’ approval on Macau.
In spite of these positive factors, businesses have not yet seen the benefits from the NAT result extension. Shopkeepers in tourist areas admitted that businesses are mainly being supported by locals and TNRs at present. In general, locals tend to spend less than tourists.
Some business operators are not confident of increased revenue during the upcoming holidays as they think many mainland residents are still uncertain about traveling to Macau, fearing sudden implementation of disease control measures.
