Macau, China, 14 Jul – Macau’s hotel industry recorded 444,912 guests in May, a drop of 22.9 percent on the previous month, the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) announced Monday.
Compared with the same month of last year, the number of hotel guests in May was down 18.2 percent.
Mainlanders and Hongkongers accounted for 47 percent and 24.3 percent of all hotel guests.
The average hotel occupancy rate decreased 13.5 percentage points year-on-year to just 59.4 percent, with 4-star and 5-star hotels leading at 61.7 percent and 61.3 percent, respectively.
The average length of stay of hotel guests rose by 0.14 night to 1.49 nights in May compared with the same month of last year.
At the end of May, the number of hotel guest rooms rose eight percent year-on-year to 17,529.
In May, the hospitality sector consisted of 86 hotels, including 17 5-star hotels and 31 guesthouses.
In the first five months of this year, the number of hotel guests dropped 1.4 percent year-on-year to 2.66 million.
Meanwhile, the number of package-tour visitor arrivals in May crashed 48.6 percent to 244,654 in May from the previous month.
Year-on-year, the number of visitor arrivals dropped 42.5 percent in May.
A statement by the Statistics and Census Service attributed the decline to the swine flu pandemic and the implementation of new travel agency regulations in the mainland.
Mainlanders accounted for 64.4 percent of all package tour arrivals in May.
Package-tour visitors accounted for 15.4 percent of all arrivals in May.
The total number of visitor arrivals in May stood at 1.59 million, a year-on-year decline of 20.4 percent.
In the first five months of this year, the gaming and betting industry generated 43.5 billion patacas in gross receipts, a year-on-year decrease of 11.5 percent, according to the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ).
Between January and May, Macau logged 8.9 million visitor arrivals, down 10.6 percent year-on-year.
(MacauNews)
