The Deputy Director of the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), Hoi Io Meng, said Thursday that moves by Macau’s concessionaires to stop the provision of free snacks to visitors of their casinos has not yet impacted tourist numbers.
IAG was the first to report last month that the Macau government had asked concessionaires to stop providing free snacks, allegedly because they were worried the practice would affect the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). According to sources, the concessionaires subsequently limited the distribution of free snacks to loyalty members who are actively acquiring loyalty points.
In an interview with local media on Thursday, Hoi said, “The number of tourists who visited Macau last weekend reached 110,000 and 120,000 respectively, and I believe that the main purpose of tourists coming to Macau is not for free snacks at the casinos.
“We don’t see any impact on the number of tourists for the time being.”
Hoi added, “Many tourists now go into the Macau community and spend money in different neighborhoods, so the change in the corporate measures will not have too much of an impact on tourists.”
Investment bank Morgan Stanley previously stated that the move by Macau’s concessionaires to limit the provision of free snacks to visitors may impact footfall but is unlikely to have any material impact on gaming revenues.
Snacks aside, Macau’s casinos have felt the impact of the post-holiday slowdown with June GGR down by 12.4% month-on-month to MOP17.7 billion (US$2.2 billion).
