Macau hotels and casinos look forward to upcoming golden week holiday as travel restrictions with China are eased
- Five out of the 23 hotels tracked by Morgan Stanley have been fully booked for the first five days of October, compared to 16 during the golden week holiday last year
- Gross gaming revenue in Macau has fallen by more than 90 per cent year on year for the past five months
The upcoming “golden week” holiday will come as a relief for Macau’s struggling casinos and hotels, as hordes of Chinese tourists are expected to travel to the gaming destination after restrictions for visitors from across the mainland are eased from next week.
Initial hotel bookings indicate that things are starting to look up for the former Portuguese colony’s economy, which depends heavily on mainland Chinese tourists.
Five out of the 23 hotels tracked by Morgan Stanley have been fully booked for the first five days of October, compared to 16 during the golden week holiday last year, according to a report by the US investment bank released this week.
This year’s golden week holiday runs from October 1 to 8.
“We are seeing meaningful improvement in occupancy before and during golden week”, but room rate still “remains weak”, according to the report from analysts led by Praveen Choudhary.