Macau occupancy rate could reach 60% during Labour Day break

Macau hopes the upcoming holiday period could help boost the tourism and gaming sectors after a weak month.

Macau.- The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes has said she expects Macau to see an average occupancy rate of “60 per cent or higher” during the Labour Day break. She expects the city would receive a daily tally of more than 25,000 visitor arrivals.

China’s State Council has designated April 30 to May 4 as this year’s Labour Day break, a period which usually sees strong market demand in Macau. Last year 165,500 tourists came to Macau during the holiday period. The first day was the peak, with 44,000 arrivals.

Macau’s Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre has recently extended the validity of pre-arrival Covid-19 tests to 72 hours from 48 hours for inbound travellers from Guangdong. Mainland China continues to be the only country to have a largely quarantine-free travel bubble with Macau. 

According to Fernandes, the easing of travel restrictions will help the tourism and gaming sectors recover after the city reported gross gambling revenue of MOP3.67bn (US$454.5m) for March, down 52.7 per cent month-on-month. The figure was the lowest since September 2020, when the tally was MOP2.2bn.

Macau visitor arrivals down 19.6% in March

The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) has reported that 526,912 tourists visited Macau in March. That figure represents a drop of 19.6 per cent when compared to the previous month when the city registered 655,505 visitor arrivals. When compared to last year, the number of tourists was down by 30.2 per cent.

Same-day visitors made up the majority of those entering the city, while those with higher overnight spending dropped by 61.2 per cent. The average length of stay decreased by 0.4 days to 1.2 days due to a higher proportion of day trips.

The DSEC reported that 70.2 per cent of tourists came from the neighbouring city of Zhuhai.