MGTO: Visitors continue to rise after CNY
The director of the Macao Government Tourism Office, Helena de Senna Fernandes, has said that the number of visitors continues to rise following the Chinese New Year holidays, with 28,000 arrivals on Saturday.
Speaking to TDM Chinese Radio, the official said that the overall Chinese New Year was busier than that of the same period last year.
“We saw more overnight visitors, which is believed to be a boost to all trades and industries […] We hope to attract more visitors to Macau once the pandemic in neighbouring cities has stabilised,” Senna Fernandes added.
Visitor arrivals for the first seven days of the Chinese New Year holiday totaled 113,699 tourists; far fewer than the average 20,000 daily tourist arrivals the government had initially expected.
Nearly 22,000 tourists visited Macau on the third day of the Lunar New Year (February 3), the highest single-day number of visitors during last week’s Spring Festival Golden Week.
The overall figures also showed a 25.4% increase from last year’s Spring Festival, while average tourist arrivals totaled to 16,242 during the week-long holiday.
Information provided by the industry last week noted that the average occupancy rate of hotel establishments during the Spring Festival Golden Week was 63.8%, an increase of 15.2 percentage points over last year’s Spring Festival figures.
Speaking to the press last week, managing director of SJM, Angela Leong, said she was satisfied with gaming revenue and hotel occupancy rates during the Chinese New Year period, especially after the first and second days of the Lunar New Year, when some hotels were 100% occupied and some were 60 to 70% occupied.
Analysts are expecting slightly higher gaming revenue for February following the increase in visitor numbers to the region during the Lunar New Year, which will likely be up 29% from January.
Last week, Linda Chen, vice-chairman and chief operating officer of Wynn Macau, said that, during the recent Chinese New Year Golden Week holiday, the group saw a year-on-year increase in visitor arrivals to Macau, with Wynn’s hotel occupancy rate reaching “99% and almost full, in line with expectations.”
