The deputy director of the MGTO says numbers have not been affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Macau.- The ban on free food and beverages on gaming floors has not deterred tourist arrivals, according to Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) deputy director Ricky Hoi. He told media on Thursday (July 4) that numbers had not been affected, with over 120,000 tourists arriving on Saturday and more than 110,000 on Sunday. Hoi said more tourists are venturing into neighbourhoods to dine at restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Macau\u2019s Gaming Inspection and Co-ordination Bureau (DICJ) had instructed the city\u2019s six gaming operators to cease offering free drinks and snacks in their casinos<\/a> in response to local business associations\u2019 complaints that the practice negatively impacted on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and reduced tourist spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Morgan Stanley analysts\u00a0Praveen K Choudhary\u00a0and\u00a0Gareth Leung\u00a0said they believed the change would have minimal impact on gross gaming revenue (GGR) but could affect overall footfall, as non-gamblers might be deterred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last year, Macau\u00a0received 28.23 million<\/a>, 71 per cent of the 2019 pre-pandemic levels (39.4 million).\u00a0Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, the director of the MGTO said she is confident the city will reach the goal of\u00a033 million visitors<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The deputy director of the MGTO says numbers have not been affected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":21522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Macau Government Tourism Office reports that the ban on complimentary food and beverages on gaming floors has not negatively impacted tourist arrivals, with high weekend visitor numbers. This regulatory change, implemented by the DICJ due to local business complaints, is projected by Morgan Stanley analysts to have minimal GGR impact but could deter non-gambler footfall. Macau aims for 33 million visitors this year, approaching pre-pandemic levels.","focusai_entities":"Ricky Hoi, Macau Government Tourism Office, MGTO, Macau\u2019s Gaming Inspection and Co-ordination Bureau, DICJ, Morgan Stanley, Praveen K Choudhary, Gareth Leung, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes","focusai_location":"Macau","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.95), compliance_legal (0.75), operator_casino (0.9), product_ux (0.7), marketing_crm (0.75), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"GGR Impact Assessment","query":"What specific data points or analytical methodologies are the DICJ and MGTO utilizing to definitively conclude that the amenity ban has not impacted Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) or overall tourist spending within the gaming vertical?"},{"label":"Operator Strategy Shift","query":"How are Macau's six gaming operators adjusting their non-gaming revenue strategies and customer retention programs to mitigate any potential long-term deterrence of non-gambling footfall identified by analysts?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,16338],"tags":[23907,23906],"class_list":["post-777016989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casino-news","category-east-asia-news","tag-land-based-casino","tag-macau-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777016989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777016989"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777016989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777017025,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777016989\/revisions\/777017025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777016989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777016989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777016989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}