Macau casinos struggle to meet demand due to labour shortage

Macau casinos are struggling to cater to the increased numbers of tourists.

Macau.- Macau casinos are struggling to cater to increased numbers of tourists from China due to a labour shortage. It’s causing the closure of thousands of hotel rooms and cutbacks in guest services. According to Bloomberg, some five-star hotels have fewer than half of their rooms available for booking. 

Billy Song, president of the Macau Responsible Gaming Association told Bloomberg: “We didn’t expect the reopening would come so fast, so everybody’s struck unprepared. After three dismal years, we all want to make the best out of this year. But now that customers have come, we don’t have enough capacity to receive them.”

He said the slow recruitment process for foreign workers was a major obstacle to the full reopening of Macau after the end of Covid-19 border restrictions. There had been more than 44,000 departures of non-local employees from Macau since early 2020, leaving a hole in the labour force. Meanwhile, the end of China’s Covid Zero policy has fueled a steep rise in visitor numbers.

In January and February combined, Macau registered almost 3 million inbound visitors. Labour shortages have led to higher room rates and lower hotel service, which could turn off tourists to the detriment of It casino operators, who collectively lost US$1.6bn during the pandemic.

The most urgent labour needs are frontline workers such as waiters, cleaners, and receptionists in hotels and restaurants. Many Southeast Asian workers, who used to make up a sizable portion of the hotel and casino workforce, have moved to countries like Singapore and Vietnam, Song said.

See also: Macau receives 16,200 package tour visitors in first three weeks of resumption