Mid-Autumn Festival: 492,100 visit Macau

The average daily number of visitor arrivals during the holiday period was 98,420.

Macau.- The Public Security Police has reported that 492,100 visitors arrived in Macau during China’s Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, which started on Sunday and ended yesterday (September 18). The average daily number of visitor arrivals during the holiday period was 98,420. Some 125,314 arrived on the first day of the holiday and 124,261 on Monday.

The Border Gate crossing between Macau and Zhuhai, the nearest mainland city in Guangdong province, was the most active with 195,789 arrivals, 39.8 per cent of all visitors.

Cumulatively, Macau received 19.75 million visitors in the first seven months of the year. The figure was up by 37.1 per cent compared to the same period last year. In April, Macau’s chief executive, Ho Iat Seng, said that Macau could attract more than 30 million tourists in 2024.

Macau casinos: GGR to reach US$2.12bn in September, analysts say

Analysts at J.P. Morgan have forecast that Macau’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) will reach MOP17bn (US$2.12bn) in September. That would mean a daily run-rate of MOP566m (US$70.55m). According to analysts, GGR for the first 15 days of the month reached MOP8.5bn (US$1.06bn), but the run-rate for last week decreased from MOP593m (US$73.96m) per day to MOP535m (US$66.71m).

DS Kim, Mufan Shi and Selina Li estimate mass GGR to be running at 105-110 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels, while VIP levels are at low/mid-20 per cent. They said they expect GGR for the third quarter to be “flattish” sequentially and “below historical seasonality of +2-3 per cent q/q”.

Macau’s GGR for the first eight months of 2024 was MOP152.10bn (US$19.92bn), up 33.4 per cent year-on-year but 23.3 per cent below the same period in 2019 (US$24.66bn).