Amid the new local Covid-19 cases, authorities will adjust Macau’s 2021 budget forecast predicting a decline in casino gross gaming revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Macau.- As Macau deals with new\u00a0local Covid-19 cases<\/a>,\u00a0Ho Iat Seng, Macau’s chief executive<\/strong>, has said the city will have to\u00a0revise its budget<\/strong>\u00a0as he expects casino gross gaming revenue will fail to recover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ho Iat Seng said he had no expectation that an easing of border restrictions between Zhuhai and Macau would help boost arrivals for the upcoming October Golden Week holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Andy Wu, president of the Travel Industry Council of Macau, <\/strong>had predicted the city could receive 40,000 daily visitors<\/a> during the holiday period while Macao Government Tourism Office director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes<\/a> had predicted 35,000 visitors a day<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, analysts at JP Morgan Securities<\/strong> now believe expectations for the national holiday could be deeply affected by new countermeasures<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the main problems according to Ho Iat Seng is that Macau has a low rate of vaccination with only 47 per cent fully vaccinated. As a result, Macau seems unlikely to remove its travel restrictions<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>for people coming from places beyond mainland China before 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Many people complain the economy is not doing well but every sector in society needs to make an effort to build herd immunity. I can\u2019t just go to the central government with a 50 or 60 per cent vaccination rate.”<\/p>Ho Iat Seng, Macau’s Chief Executive<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Morgan Stanley<\/a>\u00a0has predicted\u00a0Macau\u2019s GGR will reach\u00a0<\/strong>MOP96.77bn (US$12bn) in 2021, 33 per cent of that seen in 2019.\u00a0That figure would still be up 60 per cent when compared to the MOP60.44bn achieved in 2020<\/strong>, which bore the brunt of the pandemic\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Morgan Stanley predicts that a\u00a0recovery to pre-pandemic levels may now take until 2023\u00a0<\/strong>due to the \u201clower efficacy for certain vaccination\u201d and the effect of the Delta variant.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Macau\u2019s Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) <\/strong>declined by 47.7 per cent month-on-month in August, a month that was impacted by local cases of Covid-19<\/a> and hundreds of cancelled flights. At MOP$4.44bn (US$554.5m), it was the lowest monthly GGR figure since September 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMacau urges residents to get vaccinated<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Macau GGR down 47.7% in August<\/h2>\n\n\n\n