Retailers are pinning hopes on an influx of Chinese visitors to Macau in the middle of January, most of whom are expected to come for Lunar New Year shopping activities, to push receipts to new heights.
The rosy picture anticipated by local retailers comes after the government released promising tourist statistics on January 5. Macau registered a record daily number of 30,747 visitor arrivals over the last 11 months, as of December 31.
Lo Wang Chun, Vice Director of the Macau Association of Retailers & Tourism Services, told TDM yesterday, “Receipts generated from local retail industry increased by over 20%, month to month, in December last year.”
He attributed the uptick in retail performance to the city’s numerous discounts and promotions towards the end of last year, as many retailers were eager to “clear the stock.”
“We saw so many attractive deals in the malls with up to 70% discounts, or even, buy-one-get-one-free deals,” he added.
He anticipates that the retail business will be given a stronger shot in the arm in mid-January, as he projects that there will be an influx of tourists coming to the city to purchase gifts or groceries to gear up for the Lunar New Year in February.
He forecasts that mainland arrivals in
mid-January will be around 15% to 20% more than those registered during the New Year holiday.
“The spending power of mainland tourists to Macau has not reduced. The only change is that they are more cautious about what they spend on,” Lo stressed.
There are still many tourists in China who have not been on a vacation for a long time since the Covid-19 outbreak. Given the lowered room rate and stable Covid-19 situation in Macau, Lo believes Macau will be top of the mind for most Mainland holidaymakers.
Macau drew an average daily volume of 21,242 visitor arrivals during the New Year holiday, with the majority of them, or 19,629, being mainland visitors. Honey Tsang
The worst is over for local F&B industry
The worst has likely passed for Macau’s food and beverage (F&B) industry as it is experiencing a robust rebound, with some vendors even claiming that their business revenues are already at 60-70% of pre-pandemic levels.
Businesses no longer need to resort to reducing manpower to save their operation from going under.
President of the Macau Catering Industry Association Lei Iam Leong told TDM that the termination of the subsidy program has not been considered as the last straw for the city’s F&B businesses, however.
“The monthly payroll for employees’ salary could easily surpass the total amount of the financial aid [granted by the government],” he explained, adding that the scheme was only playing a “support” role to help local small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) ride out the storm.
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