Macau gaming operator SJM’s hotel occupancy rate has jumped to over 90 percent during the summer tourist season, according to Daisy Ho, chairman and executive director of SJM Holdings.
Speaking to local media, Daisy Ho revealed that some of the hotels under the group were fully booked over the weekend.
The bookings reflect a further influx in tourists from both traditional and new markets but both the government and operators are keen to see a new wave of international visitation.
Cheng Wai Tong, deputy director of the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) notes that visitor arrivals in summer vacation are still dominated by mainland tourists, while the growth rate of overseas tourists is slowly climbing, mainly independent tourists, while overseas group travel is slower to recover.
Macau saw its daily number of visitors reach 100,000 on weekends over the course of July. This is a solid rise from the overall daily average of visitor arrivals of 80,000 seen before the summer period. The MGTO expects that the daily average of visitor arrival should stay above 80,000 in the near future.
Macau’s aggregate visitor tally has already reached 11.6 million in 1H23. For the full-year 2023, the tourism authority is anticipating the city to see 24 million visitor arrivals. This number, if realized, would represent nearly 62 percent of the 39-million visitor tally registered in 2019.
