Posted on: July 29, 2024, 12:41h.
Last updated on: July 29, 2024, 01:32h.
The number of hotel rooms in Macau, the world’s richest gaming hub, continues to increase as the enclave’s casino resorts pivot away from the VIP high roller to the general public.
Per the half-year survey from Macau’s Statistics and Census Service, the city was home to 46,863 hotel rooms at the end of June. That’s an increase of 9.1% keys from the first half of 2023 and marks a more than 21% increase from the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.
Rooms graded five-star accounted for 28K of the room allotment, or 60%. Most casino resort rooms on the Cotai Strip are classified as such. Five-star rooms were occupied at a rate of nearly 86% during the first six months, slightly higher than the 84% citywide occupancy rate for all rooms.
Room Expansion
Macau saw several new hotels come online over the past year. SJM Resorts opened the Palazzo Versace at its Grand Lisboa Palace on the Cotai Strip in April 2023. Melco Resorts opened the Epic Tower at Studio City that same month, and W Macau in September.
Galaxy Entertainment commenced operations last August at its all-suite Raffles inside Galaxy Macau, which is also on the Cotai Strip. Galaxy opened Andaz in September. More recently, The 13 reopened this month south of the Cotai Strip.
The Statistics and Census Service report revealed that Macau’s casino resorts and hotels counted nearly 7.3 million night stays during the first half of the year. Guests from Mainland China accounted for the bulk of the stays at 5.3 million, with Hong Kong a distant second at 962K. South Korea was the third-largest feeder market with about 149K nights.
In January, the Macau government forecast that the Chinese Special Administrative Region (SAR) would welcome around 33 million visitors this year, or 84% of the city’s 2019 level. Between January and June, the city’s border agents counted 16.72 million visitors to the enclave, slightly above the government’s estimate.
Visitors Spending Less
During the COVID-19 pandemic, China directed the Macau government to clamp down on junket groups, the VIP travel organizers that for years had kept the city’s high roller rooms busy.
China President Xi Jinping became frustrated with the large-scale outward flow of money through the tax haven that is Macau. Xi said such monetary movement threatened China’s national security.
Junkets swiftly departed after Suncity’s Alvin Chau was sentenced to 18 years in a Chinese prison after being convicted of running a criminal syndicate, laundering money, and organizing illicit gambling activities.
While visitor numbers continue to inch closer to 2019 conditions, the quality of the guests as it relates to spending willingness has diminished.
The Statistics and Census Service reports that per capita spending in the first quarter declined by 24%. But since there were many more people in town than in the first quarter of 2023, overall visitor spending climbed 36% to MOP20.3 billion (US$2.5 billion).
Through six months, casinos won about $14.1 billion off of gamblers, 42% higher than the same period last year.
