Hengqin’s moves to boost its hotel room supply will lead to “healthy” competition for Macao’s hoteliers and will also generate a larger number of visitors for the SAR, says Frank Sanders, the vice president of Macao’s Sheraton Grand and St. Regis hotels.
He was speaking to a TDM interview in the wake of news that Hengqin – part of the neighbouring mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai – was planning to loosen rules on the conversion of empty office buildings and other structures into hotels.
“Competition is obviously being increased, but I think there is enough visitors around for everybody to have a slice of the cake,” Sanders told the broadcaster. He added that it was important for Macao hotels to “really focus on what they do best.”
[See more: Hengqin is allowing more kinds of empty buildings to be converted into hotels]
Hengqin is expected to target mainland Chinese budget travellers, who are now able to sightsee in Macao during the day before heading back to more affordable accommodation in Hengqin in the evenings, thanks to new multiple-entry visas. On the older single-entry visas, they had no choice but to find accommodation in Macao, where many hotel rooms are priced beyond the reach of many cost conscious mainland Chinese.
Sanders said that the emergence of Hengqin’s hotel sector would be beneficial to the wider market by drawing in a greater number of investors and tourists, as well as facilitating greater interaction between the cities in the region.
Since the lifting of Covid-19 travel restrictions in early 2023, Macao’s hotel industry has rebounded considerably, with recent government data showing that the occupancy rate in the first five months of this year stood at around 83 percent, a jump of 77 percent year-on-year. However, the relative lack of budget accommodation in the city has been a persistent concern.
