Kenny Cheung
The vice president of the Macau Hoteliers and Innkeepers Association, Kenny Cheung, predicted that hotels in Macau will be catering mainly to independent tourists over the upcoming Chinese New Year (CNY), which means that bookings will only arrive shortly before the holiday. He also expressed his confidence in the performance of hotels during the CNY golden week.
Dr Cheung said that the completion and opening of two resort projects will inject new elements into the Macau market, as well as enhance the attraction, popularity and influence of Macau. “With the new elements added, we hope the performance of the industry can remain stable, so that it can contribute positively to the tourism market in general,” he said.
Although there has been a slump in the number of VIP guests in casinos, Cheung said that he has yet to notice any significant drop in hotel occupancy rates. He said that there has already been a diversification of guests in the Macau hotel industry. Even though part of the demand for hotel rooms are from the gaming industry, and the recent decrease in revenue has affected some hotels, he said that overall occupancy figures are still on a stable level.
Moreover, he pointed out that CNY is the largest festival in China, and that the market analysis indicates that independent guests will be the majority this year. “The character of independent guests is that they start their trip later and are more likely to make individual decisions on the travelling route. Therefore, like last year, the bookings [for hotel rooms] will come relatively late because group tourists are no longer dominating… We predicted that the peak period for people to make their booking would be the period shortly before the holiday,” he said. “After analyzing the trend and looking at the experience last year, the CNY golden week will still be one of the better performing seasons in the year. Hence, we are confident in the [performance] during CNY.”
Commenting on the industry’s human resources issues, Cheung said that there will still be a growing demand for manpower. Although gaming revenue has been predicted to continue its decline over the first half of this year, he said that the diversification of the hospitality industry has already led to growth in non-gaming-related guest sources. As a result, he said that the industry will remain in good condition.
Furthermore, Dr Cheung suggested that the likelihood of fresh university graduates being attracted to joining the hospitality industry depends on whether the enterprises can help them with their future careers. “I think both the tourism industry and the hospitality industry are still developing, which should be attractive to fresh graduates,” he said.
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