The director of the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, said at least 960,000 people are expected to visit Macau during the eight-day Chinese New Year holiday, at an average of 120,000 visitors per day. The hotel industry has also indicated that the occupancy rate should return to nearly 90% during CNY, which runs from 10 to 17 February 2024.
Speaking at an event on Thursday, Fernandes said that, based on past experience, visitor traffic will peak on the third and fourth days of CNY.
“It will be dominated by visitors from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, with at least 960,000 tourists visiting Macau during the eight-day holiday,” she explained.
A check of the official websites of Macau’s six concessionaires shows that hotel rooms are already booked out at at major hotels from 12 to 13 February, including at The Venetian Macao, The Parisian Macao, The Londoner Macao, Wynn Macau, Wynn Palace, Galaxy Macau, Banyan Tree Macau, Hotel Okura, JW Marriott Macau, MGM Macau, MGM Cotai, Lisboa, Grand Lisboa and Morpheus.
The prices of five-star hotels that can still be booked range from around HK$2,700 to HK$5,000 (US$345 to US$640) per night, as found on online booking platforms. For example, the recently opened W Hotel at Studio City has only one king room left, priced at HK$5,029. Ponte 16 in Macau’s historic district also has one king room left at HK$3,060 while the new YOHO Hotel is charging a standard double suite price of about HK$3,000.
A hotel industry source pointed out that this year’s CNY hotel bookings are more optimistic than last year’s.
“Almost all two-star and budget accommodations in the old districts have run out of rooms, while five-star hotels are full. I believe this year’s occupancy rate will be 90%, with a conservative minimum of 85%, which is a return to the pre-pandemic situation,” they said.
Fernandes also mentioned the CNY hotel occupancy rate on Thursday, predicting that the hotel occupancy will reach 90%.
“Hotel prices will be a bit higher during some holidays, but we haven’t seen any sky-high hotel room prices,” she said.
“The MGTO has already held a meeting with the hotel industry and the travel trade in January this year to discuss the various tasks during the holidays, and the hotel industry is expected to keep an eye on the fluctuation of hotel room rates.”
In 2023, there were only seven days of holiday in mainland China during CNY, with the total number of visitors reaching 451,000. The average occupancy rate of hotels was 85.7%.
By comparison, in 2019, the seven-day holiday drew 1,213,487 visitors with an average hotel occupancy rate of 96.7%.
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