The recovery in Macau’s casino sector gained traction last month, with gaming revenue climbing 449.9 percent to reach a three-year high as Chinese tourists continue to flock to the gambling hub.
Gross gaming revenue reached 14.7 billion Macau patacas (US$1.81 billion), data released yesterday by the Macau Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau showed.
The result was better than the median analyst estimate of a 393 percent year-on-year increase, and is the highest monthly taking since January 2020. It was still more than one-third below the 2019 level.
Photo: Reuters
China’s five-day Workers’ Day holiday that runs through tomorrow would be a key test of the strength of the tourism boom.
Macau expects at least 70,000 visitors per day on average in the period, and had already seen numbers exceed 60,000 a day in late last month, GGRAsia reported, citing Macao Tourism Office head Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes.
That would be about 64 percent of the average daily visitation in May 2019. The government is to release last month’s tourist data later this month.
Casinos are also facing a labor shortage that has caused some resorts to close hotel rooms and cut services, resulting in a surge in room rates and deterring some travelers from visiting.
Hotel room prices are higher than they were in 2019, even though the overall booking rate is slightly below pre-COVID-19-pandemic levels, Morningstar Inc analyst Jennifer Song said.
Sands China Ltd (金沙中國) chief operating officer Grant Chum (鄭君諾) last month said that the group only opened about 7,700 rooms in the first quarter, which means it had shut 38 percent of its hotel units in the period, and expects to operate near full capacity by the summer holiday season.
While the casinos’ recovery has been boosted by a domestic tourism revival, growth could flatten in the second half of the year when China adds more international flights and pent-up travel demand normalizes, Credit Suisse Group AG analysts, including Kenneth Fong (方錦聰), said.
Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg said that Macau’s gaming revenue this year might return to 56 percent of the pre-pandemic level, but A full recovery is likely to take years as the sector grapples with longer-term risks, including China’s crackdown on high-rolling gamblers.
Gross gaming revenue next year is expected to recover to 71 percent of the 2019 level, the survey said.
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