Macau Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng reiterated the importance of developing more non-gaming infrastructure, citing strong hotel occupancy rates during the current Lunar New Year holiday during a visit to the city’s six concessionaires.
Accompanied by the Secretary for Economy and Finance Li Wei Nong and other officials on Wednesday, Ho visited MGM COTAI, City of Dreams, Wynn Palace, Grand Lisboa Macau, The Venetian Macao and Galaxy Macau successively where operators confirmed they were running at 100% hotel occupancy.
In response, Ho said, “Continuing to strengthen non-gaming projects is very important to Macau. As long as there are enough tourists in Macau, these non-gaming projects will definitely be very popular and will help attract more tourists.
“The six concessinaires need to earnestly fulfill their investment commitments in accordance with the new gaming concession contract. They must also assist the overall development of the Macau Special Administrative Region and fulfill their social responsibilities, especially ensuring the employment of local employees.”
A representative of one of the concessionaires explained that operators still faced challenges such as a shortage of manpower since reopening, although the morale of staff is generally very high.
Visitor arrival numbers to Macau have increased significantly since 8 January, with 244,644 arrivals over the first four days of Golden Week – more than double the number of arrivals through the entire seven days of last year’s Lunar New Year holiday. This included more than 90,000 arrivals on Tuesday, the highest single day tally in three years.
