Morgan Stanley has predicted Macao’s casinos will rake in gross gaming revenue (GGR) of between 800 million to 850 million patacas (US$105 million) over the Labour Day holiday period, which spans the first five days of May.
The brokerage firm’s figure would represent a 73 to 77 percent recovery on 2019’s pre-pandemic intake for the same period, and a daily average between 5 and 10 percent lower than that of the Lunar New Year, GGR Asia reported.
While 1 May is a single-day public holiday in Macao, mainland Chinese – the city’s biggest source of visitors – get three days off. When added to the weekend, it creates a five-day tourism surge for the SAR.
[See more: Nearly 22 billion patacas were collected in gaming taxes in 2024’s first quarter]
However, demand for hotel rooms is looking weaker than both Lunar New Year and 2019’s May holiday, Morgan Stanley said, with the cost of a standard room also about 20 percent lower.
The latest figures from the Statistics and Census Service show a marked increase in the number of same-day visitors to Macao during the first quarter of 2024. They more than doubled year on year to 4,791,721 and greatly outnumbered overnight visitors, who totalled 4,084,036.
The average length of stay also decreased slightly to 1.2 days.
