Macau has surpassed expectations with its Chinese New Year (CNY) tourist arrivals, reaching over 1 million visitors in just six days.
The latest data from the Public Security Police Force show that by 9pm on Thursday, a total of 156,730 travelers had entered, bringing the overall count to 1,094,232.
In the latest market watch from Morgan Stanley, analysts Praveen K Choudhary and Gareth Leung conclude that Chinese visitations are tracking well above the 2019 and October Golden Week 2023 levels, with meaningful improvement in air arrivals. ‘This bodes well for gross gaming revenue (GGR) expectations.’
The Morgan Stanley analysts expect February GGR to reach MOP20 billion ($2.5 billion), or MOP691 million ($85.9 million) per day. This forecast implies a 4 percent monthly increase and 79 percent of the 2019 level.
Analysts also mention that CNY Chinese visitations in the first four days (February 10th-13th) are 21 percent up versus October Golden Week (GW) 2023 and rose 17 percent versus CNY 2019. Visitation figures were down 6 percent versus 2019 in December 2023.
Chinese air arrivals are up 46 percent versus October Golden Week 2023 and only 2 percent below CNY 2019 levels. Chinese air arrivals were at just 81 percent of the 2019 level in December 2023.
