While Christmas is not a holiday on the Chinese mainland – Macao’s biggest tourism market – the president of the Macau Hoteliers and Innkeepers Association told TDM he nevertheless expected hotel booking rates for the festive period to reach between 80 and 90 percent.
Cheung Kin Chung said the city’s hotels were already more than 60 percent booked across Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Macao’s festive atmosphere and Christmas-centric events tend to draw visitors in as well as boost their spending, he noted. Cheung said he believed that “as the festival events are launched one after another in the next few days,” spending would go up.
[See more: Top official confident Macao will welcome 28 million visitors by the end of this year]
Macao’s average hotel occupancy rate for the first 10 months of the year was 80.9 percent, according to official figures.
Daily arrivals have averaged around 76,000, though are expected to reach around 100,000 during the Christmas and New Year period.
Outbound travel is also expected to pick up. The Travel Industry Council recently said it had observed many Macao residents booking international holidays over the Christmas break.
New CEPA opens up significant opportunities in the mainland
Many Macao firms are set to benefit from the amendments, which will make it easier to do business in the vast mainland market from 1 March.
