Macau Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng said Friday he was expecting a 20% increase in daily visitor arrivals during the current Golden Week period, pushing visitor numbers to new 16-month highs.
Speaking to reporters at a local event, Ho suggested he was expecting a significant increase over and above the 34,252 achieved on Friday 16 April – currently the highest single day tally since January 2020. Macau also welcomed the highest weekly number of visitors in the week from 9 to 15 April 2021 with 191,828 arrivals.
According to the Chief Executive, the expected increase this week was calculated on hotel room booking information provided by the industry. As previously reported by Inside Asian Gaming, some operators had said they were close to booked out for the Golden Week period.
Ho also confirmed comments made by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam last week that the pair had discussed the possibility of a “travel bubble” arrangement between the two SARs due to infection rates in Hong Kong having fallen into single figures in recent weeks. However, he added that Hong Kong would need to have zero local COVID-19 cases for at least 14 days before any serious discussions on the matter could be held.
Meanwhile, Macau’s gross gaming revenues continue to rise slowly but surely, with the Government Inspection and Coordination Bureau reporting Saturday a 1.1% sequential increase in GGR in April to MOP$8.4 billion.
