Macau: slow recovery could pick up in Golden Week

Analysts expect Golden Week in October to boost visitor numbers.

Macau.- Analysts don’t foresee a significant recovery for gaming revenues in Macau in September but expect Golden Week in October to boost visitor numbers.

A recent report from S&P Global said analysts are expecting the holiday, from October 1 to October 8 to lead more tourists to visit Asia’s largest gaming hub, especially as China’s Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) should be operational again by then.

Single-day arrivals during Golden Week 2019 were higher than the entire second quarter of 2020, and observers expect the holiday could accelerate the industry’s recovery in terms of revenue. 

GGR in August was down 94.5 per cent year-on-year, and GGR for the first week of September was down 89 per cent to MOP0.5 billion (US$63 million), according to consultancy firm Bernstein.

VIP gaming also remains slow, the consultancy said, despite Zuhai and Guangdong provinces starting to issue permits to travel to Macau through the individual visit scheme (IVS).

The visas are taking about ten days to issue, so visitor numbers have yet to increase dramatically, although there were 14,600 visitors on September 3, up from just 5,000 daily in early August.

This might change once the rest of mainland China gets access to the IVS visas again from September 23.