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Macanese Authorities Wary of Chinese New Year-Related Travel (Which Might Undercut the Casino Industry’s Slow Recovery)

Article by : Helen Jan 20, 2021

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Updated: Apr 6, 2023

Celebrated between February 12 and 26 in 2021, the Chinese New Year is looming over the horizon. But this year, the festivities don’t make the authorities excited about the upcoming boom of tourists and travelers ready to spend their hard-earned money. In the pandemic world, a surge in trips and public events that attract crowds is synonymous with creating perfect coronavirus spread conditions.

This is why Macanese authorities are wary of what the Chinese New Year celebrations may mean for the enclave’s healthcare system a couple of weeks after. While foreign visitors are already prohibited all together to enter the special administrative district (with few exceptions, of course), it’s the internal travel between the enclave and mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan that concerns the authorities.

Concerned about a potential surge in trips, the Directorate of Services for Labor Affairs of Macau officially urged those from mainland China working in Macau to stay put for the holidays and avoid traveling to their families to celebrate the Chinese New Year. The Directorate also called on the employers’ help in making sure non-resident workers avoid traveling. So far, however, this is only a request on the Macanese authorities’ behalf, not an official demand or obligation put into law.

The Macanese government reiterated the request to avoid traveling on holidays to all of the enclave’s citizens on the same day, emphasizing that Macau managed to maintain a streak of 288 days without a single COVID-19 case. To prevent crowd gatherings, the Macanese authorities have already canceled the traditional firework display and decided against holding the Parade for Celebration of the Chinese New Year.

The Institute for Municipal Affairs went as far as canceling the Chinese New Year’s Fair, adding that “neighboring cities in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Jiangmen, Zhongshan, Foshan, Zhaoqing, Qingyuan and Yangjiang have also canceled their fairs” set to take place on the Chinese New Year’s Eve.

Will these cancelations be another blow to the Macanese casino industry? While they may lead to a drop in the number of visitors, the chances are high that tourists will still come to Macau for holidays, as they did for Christmas and New Year’s. On the other hand, the difference likely won’t be enough to mean a substantial increase in gaming revenues.

If we take a closer look at the New Year period between December 31 and January 3, there was a surge in average daily visitors – the number went as high as over 21,000. Most of them – more than 90% – were from mainland China, with the rest coming from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

On December 31, almost 31 thousand visitors entered Macau – the highest in all of the 11 months before the New Year’s. On average, hotels were at 67% occupancy rates, which is 27.4% higher than in October 2020.

However, if we take a look at the monthly gross revenue of games of chance at the Statistics and Census Service of Macau’s website, December was hardly outstanding for casino operators compared to October and November. In December, the industry’s revenues amounted to MOP7.818 billion (roughly $979 million) – not so different from MOP6.748 billion in November and MOP7.270 billion in October.

However, these three months were the first sign of the industry’s recovery since March: October gross gaming revenue was 229% higher than the month before that and 38.3% higher than in March. Of course, it would pain anyone to compare these revenues to the results of January 2020, when the industry brought in MOP22.126 billion ($2.77 billion) – three times as much as in December, which was the second most profitable month in 2020 after January.