Sands China hotels operating at 90% capacity during Labour Day holiday
Sands China’s offered more rooms, overcoming problems related to the labour shortage.
Macau.- Sands China says its hotel rooms operated at 90 per cent capacity during the recent Labour Day holiday, marking an improved situation amid Macau’s labour shortage. Some 30 per cent of its hotel rooms had been unused in the first quarter of 2023.
Speaking to the media, president and executive director Wilfred Wong Ying Wai said: “It was basically full during two of the five days. We also managed to achieve an occupancy rate of 97 per cent in three days.”
During the event, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, the director of the Macau Government Tourist Office, said only 2,000 hotel rooms were unavailable during the holiday period. The latest government data shows that as of March 2023, there are 126 hotels in Macau offering 39,000 rooms.
Sands China reported adjusted property EBITDA of MOP3.22 bn (US$398m), or about 45 per cent of 2019 levels, for Q1. It’s due to hold the opening of its Londoner Macao resort in Cotai in three weeks. Wong saod manpower challenges would be overcome ahead of the opening.
The company is preparing for promotions in Singapore in early June and expanding offices abroad to attract more customers from Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia. The four-day 2023 Sands Shopping Carnival will take place between July 20 and 23, featuring 580 booths across 11 exhibition zones.
Macau received 491,968 visitors during Labour Day holiday
Preliminary data released by Macau’s Public Security Police show the number of tourist arrivals during China’s Labour Day period (April 29 to May 3) reached 491,968. That’s a daily average of just below 98,400. The police did not provide a year-on-year comparison, but the number of arrivals on Sunday, April 30 (133,911) was the highest daily total since early 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Almost 62 per cent of tourists, approximately 303,000, entered Macau through border checkpoints solely serving mainland China. Analysts at Credit Suisse predicted daily gross gaming revenue (GGR) of up to MOP750m (US$92.8m) for the holiday period.
