12,000 Portuguese Visit Macau Annually
26 January 2005
Portuguese News Digest

Some 12,000 Portuguese visit Macau Special Administrative Region annually, the president of Macau's tourist services department in Lisbon, Antonio Carrasco, announced on January 25, 2005 during the 2005 edition of Lisbon's tourism fair Bolsa de Turismo de Lisboa (BTL).

In 2005, Macau will be included in various advertising campaigns aimed at promoting the region as an attractive and quality travel destination among tourists from northern Europe and among tourists from the Iberian Peninsula.

A large number of Portuguese and foreign travel agencies currently offer various tourist packages, including Macau as a destination, Carrasco said. The number of Portuguese tourists to Macau is expected to further increase in the next few years also due to the operations of Macau's flag carrier Air Macau, Carrasco added.

[Editor's note: Air Macau was established in 1994 and currently flies with 11 passenger aircraft and three cargo aircraft. The company is expected to post a profit of 70 mln Macau pataca ($8.71 mln/6.72 mln euro) in 2004, compared to the loss of 150 mln pataca ($18.67 mln/14.39 mln euro) registered in 2003.]

(Alternative/Original name: Regiao Administrativa Especial de Macau, Delegacao de Lisboa dos Servicos de Turismo de Macau)

I'll be next.

I'll be next.

me too :)

take some pics and post it here !! :)

I also want to go!

me too ;)

Macau Visitor Arrivals Rise 12.2% In 2005 To 18.7 Mln
19 January 2006

HONG KONG (Dow Jones)--Macau's visitor arrivals grew 12.2% last year, the territory's Statistics and Census Service said Friday, slowing from the exceptionally fast expansion of 2004.

Macau had a total of 18.71 million visitors in 2005, compared to 16.67 million in 2004. Visitor arrivals rose 40% in 2004, thanks in part to a relaxation of China's travel rules that allowed mainland Chinese to travel more easily to Macau. In 2005, visitors from the mainland accounted for 56% of the total, or 10.46 million.

For the month of December, visitor arrivals rose 9.8% from a year earlier to 1.67 million, slowing from the growth rate of 10.4% in November, when 1.61 million visitors came. Slightly more than half of all visitors to Macau arrive and depart on the same day, the statistics service said.

As the only place in China where casino gambling is legal, Macau is a major tourist destination. U.S. casino operators Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LSV), MGM Mirage (MGM), and Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) now have casino interests in Macau, as do local magnate Stanley Ho and some Hong Kong operators.

The former Portuguese enclave of Macau, a peninsula and two small islands just 27 square kilometers in area and inhabited by less than half a million people, is located about 60 kilometers west of Hong Kong. Since 1999 it has been governed, like Hong Kong, as a semi-autonomous special administrative region of China.

More doors are open and counting....:)

Residents in five more mainland Chinese cities will be allowed to travel individually to Hong Kong and Macau from 1 January 2007.

They are Shijiazhuang (石家莊), Zhengzhou (鄭州), Changchun (長春), Hefei (合肥) and Wuhan (武漢).

About 36.5 million people will benefit for this measure, according to estimation by authorities in the mainland.

Residents in the neighbouring province of Guangdong were first permitted to visit Hong Kong and Macau on their own from 28 July 2003. Since then, 49 cities with a total of over 250 million people have enjoyed or will enjoy this privilege.

The complete list of these mainland Chinese cities, as on 1 January 2007, is as follows:

All cities in Guangdong Province
Shanghai
Beijing
Fuzhou (福州)
Xiamen (廈門)
Quanzhou (泉州)
Nanjing
Suzhou (蘇州)
Wushi (無錫)
Hangzhou (杭州)
Ningbo
Taizhou (台州)
Tianjin
Certain parts of Chongqing
Jinan (濟南)
Dalian (大連)
Shenyang (瀋陽)
Nanchang (南昌)
Changsha (長沙)
Nanning (南寧)
Haikou (海口)
Guiyang (貴陽)
Kunming (昆明)

Macau is getting crowder and crowder ..

The numbers just keep increasing, wow!

As predicted Macau again reached another record with 22 million people visiting the tiny southern Chinese territory’s booming casinos in 2006. Not to forget that the Grand Prix of Macau also attracted a record number of visitors!. This represents an increase of 17% against 2005, when 17.8 million people visited Macau.

The growing Macau population of 504,000 thousand received about 12 million tourists from mainland China and 9.2 million fro other parts in Asia. One interesting fact is that the number of Western visitors does not seem to be increasing, so it looks like that a lot more work needs to be done by the likes of Sheldon Adelson, James Packer and Steve Wynn to attract them to Macau.

Altogether the visitors spent a whopping US$21 billion mostly on gambling, accommodation, restaurants and drinks, which equates to about US$1,000 per visitor. Macau last year overtook Las Vegas becoming the world’s most profitable casino destination.

According to the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Mr Chui Sai On, “The tourism industry in Macau is in a phase of rapid growth,” adding that, we are aware of the challenges ahead, including the shortage of manpower,” Chui added.

He also said that the government was concerned about the city’s labour crunch, which has forced casinos to hire staff from overseas, much to the anger of unions, who have taken to the streets in protest.

“We have commissioned a report from our local tourism institute to find out just what the labour needs will be in the coming years,” he said. “The government has already said there will be new import labour policies to address this problem.”

The Secretary also said that from January the capital cities of the provinces of Hebei, Jilin, Anhui, Henan and Hubei would be part of the individual visa system for their residents traveling to the special administrative region (SAR).

The population of the 49 cities of the mainland that are part of the individual visa system for visiting Macau totals over 260 million people.

Tourism is Macau’s principle source of income, accounting directly and indirectly for about 80 per cent of the economy, according to economists. It now is a fact that tax revenue from gaming alone is sufficient to cover the city’s $2.29 billion annual budget.

Chinese tourists lead the charge into Macau, with arrivals up 14.5 percent on 2005, boosted by a further relaxation of travel restrictions on the mainland.

Macau Government Tourism Office director Joao Manuel Costa Antunes said his organization was keen to develop the industry and this year would promote the city’s business travel sector, particularly the meetings and incentives (MICE) market.

Growth in Macau is expected to continue in double-digit figures for years to come, according to a report by credit ratings agency Standard and Poor’s, which said the city’s fundamentals were strong.

It said that as long as earnings growth continued at current levels, the city’s casinos would be raking in more than all of Las Vegas’ within three to four years.

At the end of 2006 Macau had 83 hotels with 13,000 rooms, another 20 plus hotels are under construction and by 2010 Macau is expected to have about 40,000 hotel rooms.

22 Million .. :eek2:

Talk about Macau brand here.:)

http://www.macaubeer.net/images/beerbottle.jpg

The Macau Government Tourist Office has tapped the resources of Aladdin Beverage (PINKSHEETS: ADTJ), the North American importer of Macau Beer, to help promote Macau as a travel and tourism destination.

“We recognize that Macau Beer is growing in popularity, and its awareness as a known beer brand is increasing across the United States,” said Frank DeClara, Marketing Manager, Macau Government Tourist Office. “Macau is a unique travel destination and is also quickly gaining popularity among Westerners. We believe this is a terrific time to work together on mutually beneficial opportunities,” he continued.

Macau’s growth is driven by tourism. In 2004, the Sands Casino was the first Western-operated hotel and casino to open. In its first year of operation the property recouped its investment. Steve Wynn’s casino, Wynn Macau, opened in 2006 and the MGM Grand Macau is scheduled for completion in 2007. The Venetian, with a scheduled opening in June of this year, among others, are also betting big and planning to open glamorous hotels, casinos and clubs.

“The Macau name is hot right now and will become even hotter when more and more people visit the island and experience the great nightlife and rich tradition of Macau,” states Ted O’Connor, President of Aladdin Beverage, the exclusive importer of Macau Beer in the US and Canada. “Our decision to work with the Macau Government Tourist Office was an easy one. By working together we can combine our resources to get the word out about Macau as a fun destination and a great beer.”

Source (http://macaudailyblog.com/tourism/macau-tourist-office-joins-macau-beer/)

If you are in the states, you can buy it from these locations:
http://www.macaubeer.net/images/usa-locate-map.jpg

I guess Edmund Ho administration was pretty small to keep the good Portuguese players in the profitable roles...

It is easy to find Macau Beer in New York Chinatown...

wonder how it tastes :)

Ya~
When I lived in NYC~~
I always drunk this beer~~
I am so surprise that I can find Macau Beer in USA...but it is hard to find in Macau!!

Hahaahha....no macau beer in macau...

no macau beer in macau...

Galo restaurant at Macau has Macau Beer.

I have tried it one time in Macau. Don't recall the taste though. I will try again when I get a chance. :)

i think u can buy the beer in any macau's supermarket

This thread is MAINLY for the news of tourism with the facilities. Please DO NOT post any casino news or photos within this thread.

Firstly, Press Releases from the MSAR Gov't:

旅遊局向全球旅遊業界推介澳門商務旅遊 (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e910dff579098f6e507d204d89ae)

Macau destino de convenções promovido na maior feira mundial de turismo (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e910dff57b298f6e507d204d89ae)

Macau business tourism promoted in world’s leading travel trade show (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e910dff57d038f6e507d204d89ae)

German travel trade members of GoAsia voted Macau 'the most promising future tourism destination' in Asia.

The result was announced during ITB, an international travel trade exhibition in Berlin, said a press release by the Macau Government Tourist Office. The Future Award 2007, which Macau received, was voted by 26,000 entities.

Deputy Director of the Macau Government Tourist Office, Maria de Senna Fernandes, said that Macau being able to receive this award "shows that the German travel trade is aware about the changes going on in Macau".

The Future Award category was added for the first time by GoAsia, an association including tour operators, airline companies and other businesses in the tourism sector created in 2003 to encourage Germans to pick up their confidence to visit Asia after SARS.

Frank Grafenstein, communications director of GoAsia, pointed out that Macau "was able to transform completely its tourist offer, with its European roots it is acquiring a very modern face".

source (http://macau.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2007/3/13/2800765.html)

ggaaxx, Pls put ALL the tourism news into the thread Macau Tourism News (http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=449229) and help me to put it on the top.

I don't work for this board. You may want to ask someone else. sorry.:)

I'd like to get this message by PM BTW.

^^ I love Macau! :)

Yesterday's MSAR Press Releases:
二零零六年旅遊統計 (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e9117862d6328f7b11cc87bcdeae)

Estatísticas do Turismo referentes ao ano de 2006 (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e9117862e4538f7b11cc87bcdeae)

Results of the Tourism Statistics for 2006 (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e9117862f29d8f7b11cc87bcdeae)

its great to hear someone from makati (one of my most favourite skyscraper city ) replying message in this board.

btw, welcome to macau :)

Gross gaming revenues in 2006 stand at US$7.2b

(MACAU) Glitzy American-style casinos, cheap shopping and family entertainment are pulling millions of Chinese tourists to Macau, making it the world's biggest gaming draw - bigger even than the legendary Las Vegas Strip.

Thanks to the relaxation of travel restrictions that once confined the Chinese to their own cities, the tiny southern territory is now booming as tourist dollars sent economic growth rocketing 16.6 per cent last year.
'I come to gamble - what other reasons would I come here for?' said Yang Kun outside Wynn Macau, one of a new breed of American casino-hotels that have transformed this former Portuguese enclave's once moribund gaming industry.
'I hope to win some money here,' added Mr Yang, who was visiting with his elderly parents and young daughter on a day trip from the southern Chinese city of Zhongshan.
Government figures released on Tuesday confirmed what analysts had predicted as far back as October, that Macau had overtaken the Las Vegas Strip as the world's biggest casino draw.
Gross gaming revenues in 2006 at Macau's 22 casinos were equivalent to US$7.2 billion, outstripping the US$6.6 billion pulled in by the 40-odd gaming centres along Vegas' famous boulevard, although it still lags behind the entire take of the US city.
Mr Yang is one of 12 million mainland Chinese who visited Macau last year, up from just over four million that came 10 years ago.
Mainlanders made up 60 per cent of a record 22 million visitors who entered the city of 450,000, a figure that tourism chiefs expect will exceed 25 million this year.
Tourists' interest has been driven by a proliferation of American-style style resorts that have opened up since the 2001 relaxation of casino ownership rules wrested a 40-year monopoly on gaming from tycoon Stanley Ho.
Unlike casinos in Mr Ho's days, the new venues offer more than just gambling, boasting family entertainment centres, theatres, bars and restaurants.
'Macau is fun because of the many casinos here but there are also other attractions here and the good food,' said Kelvin Yip, 43, who works with a Hong Kong trading company. He was chancing his arm at the newest casino in town, the Grand Lisboa.
Another visitor, Li, 20, a resident of southern China's Zhuhai, a boomtown bordering Macau, was a first-timer, attracted by the shopping, which boasts the stores of luxury brands like Louis Vuitton. 'The living standard is so much higher in Hong Kong. Macau is nearer and things are cheaper,' he said.
Casinos like Sands Macau, which made history as the first American casino in China when it opened in 2004, heave with mainland gamblers 24 hours a day.
At its tables, the din of conversations in Mandarin can be heard above the whirring and bells of the slot machines and the clack of gambling chips.
Middle-aged ladies busily serve tea, water and soft drinks to punters as they sit hunched over the gaming tables.
Liu, 42, was a frequent visitor to the territory and a gambling fanatic. 'I come here at least twice a week,' said Liu, a resident of southern Chinese city Guangzhou. 'I enjoy going around all these casinos. Even if I didn't come here, I would bet on mahjong or cards back home,' said the unemployed man who claimed he loses 10,000 yuan (S$1,960) to 20,000 yuan a time but can't resist coming back to try his luck. 'I only come here for a few hours at a time. This is like my job,' he said.
Macau's casino renaissance has been a boon for the government and the people of the city - casino tax revenues more than meet the government's US$2 billion annual budget. - AFP

Fm Singapore's Business Times 6 April

MSAR Press Releases:
Movimento de Visitantes referente a Março de 2007 (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e91178dc1d948f7b11cc87bcdeae)

Results of the Visitor Arrivals for March 2007 (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e91178dc1e538f7b11cc87bcdeae)

MSAR Gov't Press Releases:
五‧一黃金周入境旅客升近三成 (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e911794bf1458f7b11cc87bcdeae)

Visitantes aumentam quase 30 por cento durante “semana dourada” (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e911794bfac08f7b11cc87bcdeae)

Arrivals in Labor Day “Golden Week” holiday surged 30% (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e911794c79fb8f7b11cc87bcdeae)

MSAR Press Releases:
葡國旅行社感受澳門 (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e9129db075ab8f7a5236627bc735)

Principais agências de viagem portuguesas visitam “novo Macau” (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e9129db082c38f7a5236627bc735)

Main Portuguese travel agencies visit “new Macau” (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e9129db0ab3f8f7a5236627bc735)

Seems Portugal is discovering Macau again...

MSAR Press Releases:
二零零六年旅行社調查結果 (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e91535eff1258f7b1ca2ca1c0669)

Resultados do Inquérito às Agências de Viagens 2006 (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e91535f0022b8f7b1ca2ca1c0669)

Results of the Travel Agency Survey 2006 (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e91535f005578f7b1ca2ca1c0669)


--P.S. my 1800th Post! :nocrook:

Amazingly another record was broken with over 1.25 million people traveling through Macau’s check points during the three days start of the Golden Week holiday.

Macau’s immigration authorities recorded 641,005 arrivals and 611,739 departures, and a majority of those travels were made across the Gongbei-Macau border.

An estimated 484,514 traveled across the Gongbei border into Macau, and 463,285 crossed Macau into Gongbei. The Macau ferry terminal was the second busiest immigration area, with 115,622 arrivals and 111,501 departures. The Lotus Bridge welcomed 15,828 arrivals while the inner harbor received 10,139 arrivals.

The Macau International Airport recorded 14,247 arrivals and 18,216 departures.

source (http://macaudailyblog.com/macau-tourism/travel/another-tourist-traveling-record-for-macau/)

Tourism authorities in Macau and Hong Kong agreed to set up a formal exchange mechanism to promote the industry of both cities.

James Tien (田北俊), Chairman of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, said after a closed-door meeting with the Director of Macau Government Tourist Office João Manuel Costa Antunes, that the two tourism bodies have agreed to meet every three months, while the overseas offices of both organisations will strengthen joint co-ordination efforts.

He pointed out that Hong Kong and Macau can supplement each other.

Tien also pointed out that only 300,000 visitors from mainland China would visit Hong Kong after coming to Macau, while about 2 million would visit Macau after coming to Hong Kong.

The two authorities will negotiate with the Ministry of Public Security in the mainland to relax the travel permit restrictions imposed to mainland Chinese residents on how they visit Hong Kong and Macau.

Macau’s Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Chui Sai On (崔世安) expressed willingness to enhance cooperation with Hong Kong in a reception welcoming the guests.

source (http://www.blogmacau.info/blog/?p=1828)

Nickkita Lau

The Standard, Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Poor working conditions and heavy work pressure have encouraged senior Hong Kong hotel management personnel, who were lured to Macau with attractive pay packages at the start of the hotel and casino boom there, to return to the territory.
According to the Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners, up to 40 percent of these executives - mostly from four- or five-star hotels who were hired to train hotel employees in the former Portuguese enclave - are now back here.

The backflow has put a further strain on Macau's hunt for experienced hotel personnel as the casino boom continues.

Most of the executives left Hong Kong hoping to cash in on the boom in Macau, which began shortly after casino magnate Stanley Ho Hung-sun's empire lost its gaming monopoly in 2002 and triggered an invasion by world-renowned casino operators such as Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resort and Malaysia's Genting Group.

"When the exodus from Hong Kong began around 2004, it was estimated that about 1,000 senior management executives from leading local hotels had left. Now, between 30 and 40 percent of them have returned," federation deputy chairman Clarence Shun Wah said yesterday.

"Despite the attractive salaries offered, many of them found it hard to cope with the extremely heavy workload and some were forced to quit after being on the job for only a few months, while others resigned despite having signed long-term contracts with their employers," he said.

Shun Wah said Macau is now facing an acute shortage of qualified hotel workers to cope with the growing number of hotel rooms available.

He said the main grievances of the Hong Kong professionals are that they have to put up with long working hours and extreme work pressure in Macau and, although their salaries are high - usually double that of what they earned in Hong Kong - they have to pay for their own accommodation. Michael Li Hon-sing, executive director of the federation, said the rate of wastage of hotel workers in Hong Kong has doubled in the past year.

According to Shun Wah, the cost of hotel operations has risen by more 5 percent since last year as they fight to retain workers with better pay and work conditions.

Hotel owners said they are highly aware of the threat from Macau, but Hong Kong's quality of services and infrastructure remain far superior to those of Macau.

"Macau hotels are hiring people from everywhere," Shun Wah said. "If you walk into a hotel, you don't know whether you should speak to the workers in Cantonese, English or Mandarin."

He said guests were sometimes unable to check in at some of the top hotels after 4pm because there are just not enough people to make up and clean a room which normally takes about 90 minutes.

Commenting on a proposal by Hong Kong Tourism Board chairman James Tien Pei-chun to conduct courses for hotel professionals in Guangdong for Hong Kong and Macau, the federation said this could be a problem as the demand for qualified hotel personnel in the mainland itself is high.

"Importing mainland talent is also not a simple task," Chan Shuk-fong, federation assistant executive director, said.

"Our hotels have a lot of quotas left for the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme," he said. "The screening process is just too tight for them."

Some Hong Kong tertiary institutions, such as the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, offer programs in hotel management, but Chan said they need to be more practical rather than research intensive.

Shun Wah said hotel industry workers need to start with frontline duties and work their way up, but many graduates would prefer to work in the marketing or sales departments, or decline to enter the trade.

12/11/2007
Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the number of visitor arrivals in package tours reached 311,161 in September 2007, up notably by 69.4% year-on-year. Visitors from Mainland China (191,123), Hong Kong (37,844) and Taiwan, China (27,813) recorded remarkable growth of 36.3%, 338.2% and 223.8% respectively compared with September 2006. In the first nine months of 2007, visitors arrived in package tours rose by 41.9% over the same period of 2006 to 2,975,551.

In September, the number of Macao residents travelling in package tours decreased by 7.0% year-on-year to 13,294. Mainland China, Thailand and Japan were the three most popular tour itineraries, which accounted for 69.5%, 10.2% and 7.3% of the total respectively. In the first nine months of 2007, Macao residents travelling in package tours dropped by 22.2% over the same period of 2006 to 158,633.

Meanwhile, 54,162 residents travelled under individual arrangements using services provided by travel agencies, which jumped by 100.1% over September 2006. Hong Kong (69.3%), Mainland China (12.8%) and Taiwan, China (8.4%) were the major destinations. In the first nine months of 2007, Macao residents travelled under such arrangements increased by 10.5% compared with the same period of 2006 to 304,187.

At the end of September 2007, the total number of guest rooms available in the hotel sector increased by 3,308 (+26.7%) from a year ago to 15,719 rooms.

In September 2007, a total of 522,538 guests checked into hotels and similar establishments, representing a year-on-year growth of 43.1%. The average hotel occupancy rate rose by 4.3 percentage points to 71.6%, with 4-star hotels leading at 80.4%. The average length of stay of hotel guests increased by 0.19 night to 1.37 nights. The majority of the guests came from Mainland China (39.9%) and Hong Kong (37.1%). Number of hotel guests totalled 4,215,818 in the first nine months of 2007, up by 26.1% over the same period of 2006.

In the first nine months of 2007, hotel guests (excluding Macao residents) accounted for 42.9% of the total number of tourists, up from 41.1% in the same period of 2006.

12/11/2007


In September 2007, a total of 522,538 guests checked into hotels and similar establishments, representing a year-on-year growth of 43.1%. The average hotel occupancy rate rose by 4.3 percentage points to 71.6%, with 4-star hotels leading at 80.4%. The average length of stay of hotel guests increased by 0.19 night to 1.37 nights. The majority of the guests came from Mainland China (39.9%) and Hong Kong (37.1%). Number of hotel guests totalled 4,215,818 in the first nine months of 2007, up by 26.1% over the same period of 2006.


Just received a report as follow :

Las Vegas Sands management provided some incremental positive information
on operating trends in Macau during their presentation. At Venetian Macau management
noted positive trends in October over September and that things are still going well so far
in November. For example at Venetian Macau visitation in October was 1.9 mn people
versus 1.7 mn in September, hotel occupancy was 87% versus 78%, VIP roll/play was $4.6
bn versus $4.0 bn, and mass market roll/play was $302 mn versus $229 mn.

Venetian info good news...
I haven't done a proper analysis yet on Sep tourism figure yet, but my glance is that hotel occupancy dipped compared with August, so altho went up a lot yoy, over month was only OK.
May not be surprising, given size of Venetian probably shoud've affected other hotels. However, overall, on a yearly basis, long-term trend supports hotel industry, and if the Venetian figures suggest, they are doing well in the long run.

From the track around Guia Hill, there are spectacular views of the city and busy waterways.
It seems that Macau's different communities have learned fromm each other how to enjoy a break. So you find plenty of customers for the countless Chinese teahouses and Portuguese-style cafes, often with tables on te pavemnet.
...

Benefited from the National Day holidays, the number of visitor arrivals reached 2,430,414 in October 2007, representing a year-on-year increase of 22.1%. Visitors from Mainland China and Hong Kong rose by 28.9% and 8.1% respectively, whereas those from Taiwan, China dropped by 5.5%. Meanwhile, same-day visitors accounted for 52.7% of the total arrivals, at 1,280,949.

The majority of the visitors came from Mainland China (56.3% of the total), Hong Kong (28.5%) and Taiwan, China (5.0%). Among the Mainland visitors, 46.4% travelled to Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme, at 634,417.

In the first ten months of 2007, visitor arrivals reached 21,926,427, up by 22.6% over the same period of last year. Visitors from Mainland China grew by 23.0% to 12,022,644; arrivals from Hong Kong went up by 20.5%, whereas those from Taiwan, China dropped slightly by 0.3%. Furthermore, same-day visitors made up 52.2% of the total arrivals, at 11,453,650.

Analyzed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by sea increased by 16.3% to 7,272,873 over the first ten months of 2006. Among them, 6,874,894 arrived at the Outer Harbour, with 61.5% from Hong Kong and 23.4% from Mainland China. Visitor arrivals at the Inner Harbour totalled 397,979 and 52.4% were from Mainland China.

At the same time, visitor arrivals by land grew by 26.8% to 13,464,068, with 13,148,980 entering through the Border Gate; visitors from Mainland China and Hong Kong accounted for 74.0% and 18.9% respectively. Meanwhile, there were 308,409 visitors arriving through the Checkpoint of CoTai.

In addition, arrivals by air totalled 1,189,486, an increase of 17.7% over the first ten months of 2006. Among the 1,181,558 arrivals at the Macao International Airport, visitors from Taiwan, China (45.1%), Southeast Asia (22.2%) and Mainland China (21.9%) were the major users.

Source: Statistics and Census Service

http://www.macaudailyblog.com/

Benefited from the National Day holidays, the number of visitor arrivals reached 2,430,414 in October 2007, representing a year-on-year increase of 22.1%. Visitors from Mainland China and Hong Kong rose by 28.9% and 8.1% respectively, whereas those from Taiwan, China dropped by 5.5%. Meanwhile, same-day visitors accounted for 52.7% of the total arrivals, at 1,280,949.

Thanks to ggaaxx for sharing all these latest news & figures on Macau.

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the number of visitor arrivals reached 2,618,823 in December 2007, representing a year-on-year increase of 21.1%. Visitors from Mainland China and Hong Kong rose by 26.8% and 2.7% respectively, with those from Southeast Asia soared by 81.2%. Meanwhile, same-day visitors accounted for 50.6% of the total arrivals, at 1,324,030.

The majority of the visitors came from Mainland China (55.3% of the total), Hong Kong (27.7%) and Southeast Asia (6.7%). Among the Mainland visitors, 47.4% travelled to Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme, at 687,000.

Visitor arrivals for the whole year of 2007 surged by 22.8% over 2006 to an all-time record of 27,003,370. Visitors from Mainland China grew by 24.1% to 14,873,490; arrivals from Hong Kong and Taiwan, China went up by 17.8% and 0.5% respectively. Furthermore, same-day visitors made up 52.1% of the total arrivals, at 14,058,164.

Analyzed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by sea increased by 17.3% to 8,980,381 over 2006. Among them, 8,488,612 arrived at the Outer Harbour, with 60.0% from Hong Kong and 23.8% from Mainland China. Visitor arrivals at the Inner Harbour totalled 483,625 and 50.8% were from Mainland China.

At the same time, visitor arrivals by land grew by 26.3% to 16,549,235. Among the 16,055,986 visitors entering through the Border Gate, those from Mainland China and Hong Kong accounted for 74.5% and 18.4% respectively. Meanwhile, there were 482,874 visitors arriving through the Checkpoint of CoTai.

In addition, arrivals by air totalled 1,473,754, an increase of 19.2% over 2006. Among the 1,465,619 arrivals at the Macao International Airport, visitors from Taiwan, China (43.6%), Southeast Asia (23.8%) and Mainland China (21.7%) were the major users.

^^^^
Analysing figures (my own opinion), general numbers kept up previous sustained growth, with figure of 27m visitors just 1m less than HK - expect this to surpass HK this year. Vistors growth from HK slowed appreciably tho slack taken up by China.

Beyound that, most interesting is the high jump for SE Asia. Looks like figures show that SE Asia, due to longer travel time, may be visiting Macau as a holiday destination during the Christmas/NY hols. This is in line with comments from our forummers in Singapore saying they know a lot of people that have now visited Macau (whereas before, practically no one went). Hence we are seeing the growth of Macau as a Regional travel centre.

Going into details on attachment fm their website.. some further breakdown.
SE Asia 174,246 visitors +81.2% on last December
Oceania 17,180 +74.3%
Korea 28,642 +51.14%
Japan 32,861 +49.2%
Americas 33,131 +46.49%
Europe 24,560, +28.72%
So looks above average growth from from International visitors (compared with local/Chinese visitors), with the effect stronger with regional visitors (not surprising, long flight from US/Europe). This is great news for development of Macau as it evolves into an international destination (ie less daytrippers, spending longer in hotels and spending more.

Macau's high visitor number is distorted by day-trippers. Just taking international visitors plus Chinese visitors flying in gives 322k visitors in December (these likely to stay for at least one night) gives an annualised figure of almost 4m 'true' tourists, or less than half of Singapore's tourist figure of 9.4m (which is also a business destination). If kept up (Macau needs to improve visitors experience), this figure of 4m is still very respectable.

December's increase is higher than the increase for the whole year for all foreign markets, showing upward trend.
Official figures show that 50% of arrivals are same day visitors, or approx 13.5m visitors staying overnight (including HK and mainland China).

Any thought on these SE visitor would buy Macau properties like they do in Singapore, I know a lot of rich Malaysian and Indo Chinese conduct most of their large financial affairs in Singapore - thus merchant bankers in Singapore are filthy rich. What the chances of these people having a holiday apartment in Macau?

Any thought on these SE visitor would buy Macau properties like they do in Singapore, I know a lot of rich Malaysian and Indo Chinese conduct most of their large financial affairs in Singapore - thus merchant bankers in Singapore are filthy rich. What the chances of these people having a holiday apartment in Macau?

I don't know anyone has bought a 2nd home in Macau yet, but the latest news on the number of SE Asia tourists is impressive:

The number of visitor arrivals to Macau reached 2,618,823 in December 2007, representing a year-on-year increase of 21.1%. Visitors from Mainland China and Hong Kong rose by 26.8% and 2.7% respectively, with those from Southeast Asia soared by 81.2%.

Any thought on these SE visitor would buy Macau properties like they do in Singapore, I know a lot of rich Malaysian and Indo Chinese conduct most of their large financial affairs in Singapore - thus merchant bankers in Singapore are filthy rich. What the chances of these people having a holiday apartment in Macau?

I think Malaysian/Indonesians park the money in SG for safekeeping, education for their kids as it is safe and nearby.
More likely, I think mainlanders are more likely to enjoy the entertainment in Macau. And maybe for the Macau passport/tax treatment. Possibly, rich Filipinos (maybe Thais) may do this in Macau as it a very close flight as they already visit HK often. Japanese/Korean also may have an interest (maybe many expats already working in China/HK). HK'ers likely still to be maybe equal rank with China in terms of numbers.

I think 'holiday' home market yet to really emerge... but this is the vision of Sands, with its proposal for next door Zhuhai. There has been a hugh lack of info on this, maybe as they wait to see the outcome of their existing Cotai investments, but possibly getting approval from Beijing/zhuhai the most likely troublespot (after all, Beijing seems to be currently against further foriegn investment in property in China due to hot market).

I think 'holiday' home market yet to really emerge... but this is the vision of Sands, with its proposal for next door Zhuhai. There has been a hugh lack of info on this, maybe as they wait to see the outcome of their existing Cotai investments, but possibly getting approval from Beijing/zhuhai the most likely troublespot (after all, Beijing seems to be currently against further foriegn investment in property in China due to hot market).

I think investors would want to review the financial figures of Venetian and other projects in Cotai Strip before willing to finance the new projects in Zhuhai. Sand's stock price has been in a huge correction mode recently, reflecting the investors worry whether Venatian can hit the projected numbers. There is rumors that the Sands lost some market share after the opening of MGM and the recent junket deal at Crown so there is some concern there until they released the next earning report.

Macau Daily Times
Sunday, 09 March 2008

Macau is expected to experience the world’s largest tourism growth this year in both visitor numbers and economic benefit.
The latest Tourism Satellite Accounting Forecast from the World Travel and Tourism Council predicts Macau will top the world in tourism demand growth with 22 percent, followed by Angola and Montenegro.
Macau is also expected to lead the world in economic growth of the tourism industry with a more than 17 percent real growth in gross domestic product directly from the tourist trade.
The trend is also predicted to continue over the next 10 years with an average economic growth rate of more than 10 percent.
According to the research, Macau is also more reliant on its travel and tourism industry than any other destination.
This year almost 83 percent of the SAR’s total gross domestic product is expected to come from visiting tourists.
Macau is followed by Antigua & Barbuda, Anguilla and Aruba in terms of its tourism dependence, however will be overtaken by Antigua and Barbuda and Aruba over the next decade.
Worldwide a slowdown in the travel and tourism industry is expected for this year but prospects brighten over the next ten years.
Internationally the sector is expected to generate close to US$8 trillion this year, rising to approximately US$15 trillion over the next ten years.

China jumps Japan
Considerable ground has been made by the emerging markets which are experiencing rapid economic growth. In 2008, China will jump from fourth to second position above Japan and Germany and is forecasted to increase its tourism and travel industry four-fold by 2018, accounting for US$2,465 billion, with an annual growth rate of almost 9 percent.
Overall, the new TSA results reveal a moderate impact on the industry as a result of the global economic downturn, with its annual growth rate experiencing a slowdown in 2008, to 3 percent, compared with 3.9 percent last year.
Looking past this present cyclical downturn, the long-term forecasts point to a mature but steady phase of growth for world tourism between 2009 and 2018, the research concluded. Over the next decade the industry is expected to grow 4.4 percent each year, supporting 297 million jobs and 10.5 percent of global GDP by 2018.
WTTC President Jean-Claude Baumgarten explained "Challenges come from the US slowdown and the weak dollar, higher fuel costs and concerns about climate change.”
“However, the continued strong expansion in emerging countries - both as tourism destinations and as an increasing source of international visitors - means that the industry's prospects remain bright into the medium term."
Regionally Africa, Asia Pacific and the Middle East are experiencing higher growth rates than the world average, at 5.9 percent, 5.7 percent and 5.2 percent respectively. The mature markets, most notably the Americas and Europe, are falling below the world average with growth at 2.1 percent and 2.3 percent respectively.
The overall impact of this slowdown for mature markets is expected to be offset by the strength of the emerging markets explains John Walker, Chairman of Oxford Economics "In particular, China, India and other emerging markets are still growing rapidly, which will increase both business and leisure travel, while many countries in the Middle East are undertaking massive tourism-related investment programmes."
Moreover, even in countries where economic growth slows, there is likely to be a switch from international to domestic travel rather than a contraction in demand for tourism.
Among the 176 countries covered in the TSA research, the United States continues to maintain pole position as the largest tourism economy, with its total demand accounting for more than US$1,747 billion this year.
With a growth rate at 1.1 percent expected this year the credit crunch is leading to a marked slowdown in US economic growth and is likely to restrict the business travel of those working in financial markets.
Highlighting the challenges of market volatility and external events faced by the industry, Alex Christou, Managing Partner of Accenture's Transportation & Travel Services said "High performance companies will differentiate themselves by being highly focused on their individual customers.
“The winners will be companies that take a balanced view, driving customer intimacy and product innovation while driving non-value added costs out of their operations."

(25/02/2008)

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals reached 2,371,754 in January 2008, a year-on-year increase of 16.3%. Visitors from Mainland China (1,421,782) and Southeast Asia (109,738) grew by 23.0% and 58.2% respectively, while those from Hong Kong (581,860) decreased by 3.7%. Same-day visitors accounted for 52.3% of the total arrivals, at 1,240,119.

The majority of the visitors came from Mainland China and Hong Kong, which accounted for 59.9% and 24.5% of the total respectively. Among the Mainland visitors, 42.2% (600,324) travelled to Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme.

Analyzed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by sea went up by 10.2% over January 2007 to 721,972. Among them, 673,169 arrived at the Outer Harbour (+9.4%), with 53.9% from Hong Kong and 24.8% from Mainland China.

Visitor arrivals by land increased by 19.4% to 1,522,875. Arrivals through the Border Gate rose by 13.6% to 1,448,854. The majority of these visitors came from Mainland China (79.4%) and Hong Kong (14.0%).

In addition, visitor arrivals by air stood at 126,907, up by 17.8% over January 2007. Arrivals at the Macao International Airport up by 17.6% to 125,355, and visitors from Taiwan, China (34.1%), South East Asia (26.4%) and Mainland China (23.4%) were the major users.


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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals reached 2,371,754 in January 2008, a year-on-year increase of 16.3%. Visitors from Mainland China (1,421,782) and Southeast Asia (109,738) grew by 23.0% and 58.2% respectively, while those from Hong Kong (581,860) decreased by 3.7%. Same-day visitors accounted for 52.3% of the total arrivals, at 1,240,119.

The majority of the visitors came from Mainland China and Hong Kong, which accounted for 59.9% and 24.5% of the total respectively. Among the Mainland visitors, 42.2% (600,324) travelled to Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme.

Analyzed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by sea went up by 10.2% over January 2007 to 721,972. Among them, 673,169 arrived at the Outer Harbour (+9.4%), with 53.9% from Hong Kong and 24.8% from Mainland China.

Visitor arrivals by land increased by 19.4% to 1,522,875. Arrivals through the Border Gate rose by 13.6% to 1,448,854. The majority of these visitors came from Mainland China (79.4%) and Hong Kong (14.0%).

In addition, visitor arrivals by air stood at 126,907, up by 17.8% over January 2007. Arrivals at the Macao International Airport up by 17.6% to 125,355, and visitors from Taiwan, China (34.1%), South East Asia (26.4%) and Mainland China (23.4%) were the major users.

I have some questions for Macau forumers.

- I would like to know where the ferry station is in Macau (if taking ferry from HK to Macau). Is it close to the city? attractions?
- how is the public transporation in Macau? is it easy to get around? I would like to visit Macau for a day. do you think it is possible to go to the casino area and the historical area in one day. Please suggest me.
- is it easy to go to Macau from HK?

Thanks.

I have some questions for Macau forumers.

- I would like to know where the ferry station is in Macau (if taking ferry from HK to Macau). Is it close to the city? attractions?
- how is the public transporation in Macau? is it easy to get around? I would like to visit Macau for a day. do you think it is possible to go to the casino area and the historical area in one day. Please suggest me.
- is it easy to go to Macau from HK?

Thanks.
Sorry, I am not Macau forumer, but I can share some information to you.

Where the ferry station is in Macau (if taking ferry from HK to Macau). Is it close to the city? attractions?

Macau ferry terminal is not far from the city centre, many attractions and the airport (lot of casinos nearby linked by the sky bridge)

How is the public transporation in Macau? is it easy to get around?
Taxi and bus but, if you in rush I prefer taxi with 2 different rates; nornal and flag fall rate. ($HK is acceptable) For the bus also very easy to get around (go to China is possible like in HK) but, they provide not much information in English (Mainly are in Protuguese and Chinese)

is it easy to go to Macau from HK?
Ferry is 24 hrs. service. First Ferry is the first ferry line, older and slower from Kowloon. turboJet is new comer, newer and faster like their name from HK island.

There are three ferry departure points from HK and now two points in Macau. The main one is Shun Tak terminal on HK Island, which mainly goes to the main one Macau (Peninsular, Outer harbour). A new operator CotaiJet now also operates from Shun Tak HK, but only goes to Macau, Taipa (CotaiJet is Venetians Ferry ).
The second busiest leaves from Kowloon, HK Harbour City, operated by NW Ferries, operating approx hourly (tho not 24 hours). This also goes to the main Macau terminal.
The third leaves from HK airport, I think going to Macau Taipa. This one I haven't tried so not sure about details, and I don't think this is frequent.

During peak times, taxi's are getting hard to get, with most places involving queues.

A third transport are the FREE coaches/buses run by casinos. They leave from main ferry terminal in Macau. A lot of people use this so there are queues (obvious coz its free), but has limited destinations (ie casinos incl Venetian, immigration points). Note many of these have restrictions for children !!!

thanks for the information :)

With the ferry link between the Maritime Terminal (Macau) and HK International Airport's SkyPier, it only runs about 7 departures a day and that you have to be arriving or departing HK by air. Meaning that they can only use this service as a connection to/from the flight to/from HKG.


This is because the passengers that use this service are exempt from the HK Immigration authorities to access the SkyPier.

Tks for info... aways wondered why it wasn't frequent...
Surely they should launch ferry services from HK Airport to Macau for normal travellers - the route should be much faster as it is much closer...(and hopefully cheaper !!)

I'm not sure, but once CotaiJet get more ferries, they may launch a service from the Airport to Taipa. Nb this hasn't been researched/confirmed, but I think I read somewhere about this.

MSAR Press Release:
澳門特別行政區政府旅遊局 澳台兩地旅遊業界洽談合作商機 (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e9197001ae788f7e64948fff2992)

Operadores turísticos de Macau em Taiwan para grande bolsa de contactos (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e9197001afa88f7e64948fff2992)

Macau and Taiwan trade meet at major travel-mart in Taipei and Taichung (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e9197001b17d8f7e64948fff2992)

Results of the Visitor Arrivals for March 2008
(21/04/2008)

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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals reached 2,713,457 in March 2008, a year-on-year increase of 25.6%. Visitors from Mainland China (1,566,179), Hong Kong (743,250) and Southeast Asia (153,921) grew by 32.4%, 11.5% and 60.4% respectively. Same-day visitors accounted for 53.2% of the total arrivals, at 1,444,785.

The majority of the visitors came from Mainland China and Hong Kong, which accounted for 57.7% and 27.4% of the total respectively. Among the Mainland visitors, 43.3% (678,822) travelled to Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme.

In the first quarter of 2008, visitor arrivals totalled 7,506,309, up by 17.9% over the same quarter of 2007. Visitors from Mainland China rose by 22.6% to 4,385,684; concurrently, those from Hong Kong and Southeast Asia increased by 3.3% and 63.3% respectively. Furthermore, same-day visitors made up 52.6% of the total arrivals, at 3,951,571.

Analyzed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by sea went up by 10.9% over the first quarter of 2007 to 2,386,943. Among them, 2,164,981 arrived at the Outer Harbour (+8.1%), with 57.6% from Hong Kong and 23.5% from Mainland China.

Visitor arrivals by land increased by 21.4% to 4,704,257. Visitors arriving through the Border Gate rose by 14.8% to 4,448,120 and the majority were visitors from Mainland China (79.1%) and Hong Kong (14.6%).

In addition, visitor arrivals by air stood at 415,109, up by 21.3% over the first quarter of 2007. Visitors arriving at the Macao International Airport grew by 20.5% to 408,094 and those from Taiwan, China (35.0%), Southeast Asia (28.8%) and Mainland China (22.1%) were the major users

Poor service keeping away Japanese tourists
Thursday, 22 May 2008
By Nigel Huxtable

Japanese travel agents are holding off sending tourists to Macau because of the “unsatisfactory” experience an increasing number are having in the city, said operators yesterday.
Agents specialising in bringing Japanese tourists to the SAR are receiving “many” complaints from travellers about the service levels in the city, a number of companies told reporters on the sidelines of a forum on developing tourism from Japan yesterday.
Poor service from tour guides, shop assistants, waiters, hotel staff and bus drivers top the complaints list, with many describing their experience in Macau as unsatisfactory, said Tetsuya Yamada, general manager of JTB (Macau) Travel Ltd.
New air routes to Japan has seen the number of visitors from the country increase by 36 percent last year to almost 300,000 visitors.
With the signing of an agreement to increase air rights earlier in the year, access for Japan tourists is likely to increase.
Air Macau has announced that it will increase travel from the country with the expectation that its cash-cow cross-straight flights will become redundant. It hopes to open three additional routes to Japan this year.
Earlier in the month Viva Macau announced it will offer four charter flights a week to Tokyo from July 20.
The level of interest in Macau has grown in Japan which has been boosted by marketing from the new casino-resorts, especially the Venetian Macao, said Kuroishi Junichi, managing director of the Hong Kong based agent attached to Japan Airlines – JALPAK.
“Japanese tourists used to travel to Hong Kong for three nights and maybe spend a day in Macau,” he said.
“These days they are only staying in Hong Kong for one day and spending the rest of the time in Macau.”
The share of the company's business that comes from Macau trips has jumped to 30 percent from 10 percent two years ago.
However many are not returning home with glowing reports about the SAR.
The Venetian Macao is the focus of much criticism with guests finding its size impractical and service levels poor, said Mr Kuroishi.
“Many won't be coming back, it takes so long just to find your room,” he said.
Service levels have improved at the Cotai Strip's first resort since it opened, said Mr Tetsuya, however there is still much improvement required.
Some 80 guests that arrived by a charter flight at 3.30am last November were only checked in to their hotel rooms by 8:00am, he said.
“It is very hard for them [travel agents in Japan] to take their important customers to Macau because they are afraid” they will have a bad experience, he added.
A tourist industry that was built around day trippers is the main problem, according to Mr Tetsuya.
“Tour guides don't have much experience with checking-in [to hotels] and what to do if there is a problem in the hotel,” he said.
“Before they used to say good-bye at 3:00pm, now they have to look after them for two or three nights.”
Faster processing of work permits for Japanese guides is one potential solution said Dominic Sio, president of the Japan Alumni Society of Macau, organiser of yesterday's forum.
The group of some 150 members who have all studied in Japan brought together travel companies, airlines, hotels and other interested businesses yesterday to discuss ways to increase the number of tourists travelling from Japan.
“They [travel agents] complain they don't have enough Japanese speaking guides,” said Mr Sio.
“It is not easy to get a license so they [forum attendees] suggest to the government to make the processing time for applying for a visa shorter.”
Poor service levels, which include rude bus drivers, is suppressing the current Japanese tourist market by approximately 20 percent, said Mr Tetsuya.
Last year his company brought in 30,000 visitors from Japan and has a plan to double this in three years time.
However if service levels don't improve travel agents will begin looking for alternative destinations rather than risking their reputations, said Mr Tetsuya.
“If the customer doesn't receive satisfaction they complain and change companies,” he said.
“Some of our companies [in Japan] don't want to sell Macau but are waiting for Singapore to open its casinos.”

Macau Daily Times

Poor service keeping away Japanese tourists


Yes, this is my worry for Macau. I have clearly written one thread here a few months ago to complain my bitter experience in Macau for visitors who carry luggages and staying overnight. The logistic and service of the whole city is designed for day trippers. As it wants to attract more MICE and entertainment business visitors to diversify the economy, Macau will have to urgently address this issue in the coming years. It is not designed for people who are used to high end service. I can especially understand for the Japanese tourists as the service level at their home country is so good.

Border checkpoint expansion to receive 500,000 people per day from 2010
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
The expansion of the Border Gate checkpoint between Macau and Gongbei, in Zhuhai, which will be finished by the end of next year, will make it possible to deal with up to 500,000 people per day, officials said.
Currently, the border post can process up to 300,000 people per day.
The area of the border post will increase from 17,880 square metres to 23,120 square metres following expansion work by Companhia de Construção e Engenharia Civil China (CCECC) Macau and cost around 171 million patacas.
The new facilities will increase the number of attendance booths from 52 to 98 and increase automatic points for Macau residents five-fold.
The improvements carried out in the tourist area will, however, lead to a reduction of the area for vehicle traffic, which is expected to decrease from 24,000 vehicles per day to 21,600.
Macau, which has a population of 543,000 people, received 27 million people last year, of which visitors from Hong Kong, the mainland and Taiwan accounted for the vast majority.

PRC has anounced they will restrict Guangdong residents to visit Macau only once a month. This measure, along with others like the previously announcement to restrict futher casino licences and casino land is aparently design to force casino operator to deversify from Gambling business only.

Only time will tell all these will be played out. But in the mean time, exacerbated by the current global gloom, it causes a lot of persimission in the market.

PRC has anounced they will restrict Guangdong residents to visit Macau only once a month.

Is this being announced today? I don't seem to read it in papers or internet media.

China announced restrictions last year restrictions (think last summer, after riots on May day), but that had no actual effect on mainland numbers...

Either there is a way around, and this could be posturing again...

However, guess you never know... that is the power of this threat...

China announced restrictions last year restrictions on travel permits to Macau last year (think last summer, after riots on May day), but that had no actual effect on mainland numbers...

Maybe last time/this time there is/was a way around , and this could be posturing again...

However, guess you never know... that is the power of this threat...
I'm also not sure how they can implement this as well... there are also a lot of cross regional business.. surely you can't stop people with legitimate business from going over at least a few times a day...

Wednesday, 28 May 2008
Cotai Waterjets (Macau) Limited announced that it has received permission from the appropriate Macau and Hong Kong transportation departments to begin operating its Cotai Strip CotaiJets with increased frequency and at night.
According to a statement, Cotai Waterjets said the expanded service, which runs between the Hong Kong-Macao Ferry Terminal at Shun Tak Centre and the Taipa Temporary Ferry Terminal, will serve the “public's interest by easing traffic and reducing the immigration border crossing time at the ferry terminal on the Macau peninsula.”
The scheduling details related to the expanded new service, as well as the launch date of the services, will be provided in the near future, the Cotai Waterjets said.
CotaiJet service is fully managed and operated by Cotai Chu Kong Shipping Management Services Co., LTD of Hong Kong using ferries purchased by a wholly-owned subsidiary of Las Vegas Sands Corp.

^^
Another piece in the puzzle for LVS (they talked about this a lot in their last conference call following their poor 1Q ? results).
Something like this was quite important for them... allows Venetian to bring people directly to resort.. maybe also to boost operating efficency/profits of ferry service itself... and I think maybe to better service VIPs

Last year's restriction was carried out by limiting application for MAcau travel only, but not Macau and HK together, as well as application for single travel only instead of the double permit previously available.

Guangdong will carried out the lastest restriction by lenghthen the application process to a minimum of 15 working days for individual visitors (that works out to about one visit per calenda month if you really tried.

As for business travellers, ie corporations that have legitimate business with Macau, they previously can allocate 10 nominees to receive permits with unrestricted travel, that has been reduced to 5.

It may not have a large real impact, as it is rare for any average person to visit the same place more than once a month, it may actually induce them to stay longer instead of, as a lot of them do, returning across the border on the same day. What this is having is a pychological impact, previously everyone thought, if you build, people will come, that is still the case, but no one gave a serious thought that PRC is a communist country which can and will restrict people's movements if they desire a particular outcome , this maybe a bit more spooky to the American (don't forget American pitch Macau as the LVS of the East- the only place in China where gambling is legal, which give people the impression you can go and do what you want anytime you want like the real LVS).

I guess all the new policies is designed to force the concessionaries to deliver the promise of non-gaming angles, bring in foreign visitors, and reduced the reliance on PRC.

How this will play out, only time will tell. But as I said before, in the mean time, it has induced uncertainly for everyone; and if wall street analyst no longer think Macau is a money making machine with unlimited promises, it will reduce rating, which in turn will reduce concessionaries' ability to raise funds to build. This may also reduce the desire of new investors like shops, restaurants, etc to come in.

Guangdong will carried out the lastest restriction by lenghthen the application process to a minimum of 15 working days for individual visitors (that works out to about one visit per calenda month if you really tried.

I still have not read the news on the media yet. Is this restriction confirmed?


I guess all the new policies is designed to force the concessionaries to deliver the promise of non-gaming angles, bring in foreign visitors, and reduced the reliance on PRC.

In my opinion, the Macau government has to be more pro-active if it wants to bring in foreign tourists. Public infrastructure is simply lagging behind; just look at the ferry terminal and airport, which looks like any Third World standard. The immigration line is worse than before; if they are serious, they would have opened up more booths to reduce waiting time.


How this will play out, only time will tell. But as I said before, in the mean time, it has induced uncertainly for everyone; and if wall street analyst no longer think Macau is a money making machine with unlimited promises, it will reduce rating, which in turn will reduce concessionaries' ability to raise funds to build. This may also reduce the desire of new investors like shops, restaurants, etc to come in.

Wall Street is a bit concerned now. Just look at their equity prices, closer to 52 weeks low than high. Obviously, the correction of their equity prices are more due to concern on their Las Vegas operation rather than Macau ones.

But for most Macau investors, I think most are not too concern about China's policy. Most take for granted that favorable policy will continue as long as China needs to show HKG/Macau's prosperity to attract Taiwan back to the motherland.

I still have not read the news on the media yet. Is this restriction confirmed?.

Maybe this is not deemed newsworthy... just another policy/policy change...
This esp as there were much more of a shock last year when they first announced restrictions, and which had no effect on tourism....

As with all policy in China, it depends on implementation, which is often patchy...

Maybe implementation will be lapse, but the new restriction is confirmed, then again they may open up more cities to allow individual visits, which right now, only accounts for a small number of cities

This restriction was reported in small summary section in SCMP on Friday...
Guangdong residents only allowed to visit HK OR Macau once a month... think previously it was only 2 HK and 1 Macau...

I think GD residents may have been able to travel to Macau via HK ??
There was a mention that there was concern about Macau being too focussed on VIP business, and this may be something to make sure Macau continues to develop other businesses...

Macau Daily Times
Sunday, 01 June 2008

The Guangdong government will impose tougher restrictions on issuing travel permits to Macau starting tomorrow in bid to "control the number and frequency of mainlanders visiting Macau", the Macao Daily News reported yesterday.
Zhuhai will suspend the acceptance of new applications for business travel permits to Macau from Monday onwards and existing permit holders will also be suspended from applying for multiple-entry visas.
In addition enterprises which have been issued business travel permits will need to have their names registered with the Guangdong government between June 1 and August 31, according to the newspaper report.
The notice issued on Friday from the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Bureau in Zhuhai said that an order has been received from a senior officials outlining the above changes.
The new registration process for mainland enterprises requires the company supply information according to the "Corporate Filing Notes".
If any false declarations or irregularities were found, the company will have its visa application qualification permanently cancelled, the Macao Daily News said.
After registrations have been approved, enterprises will in the future need to apply for their business travel permits through designated commissioners.
The newspaper reported that the Guangdong Province has started to control the frequency of mainlanders travelling to Macau via the Individual Visit Schemes in May.
Mainland Chinese are restricted to applying for the individual visit visa once a month or at a one-month interval between two applications.
The mainland department declined to elaborate on the meaning of the new restrictions, but added that the move was mainly "to limit the number and frequency of mainlanders visiting Macau", the newspaper reported.

Package Tours and Hotel Occupancy Rate for April 2008



Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that Macao registered 450,017 visitor arrivals in package tours in April 2008, up by 27.2% from a year earlier. Visitors from Mainland China (301,892) and Southeast Asia (45,373) surged by 24.1% and 146.8% year-on-year, while those from Hong Kong (31,339) dropped by 15.6%. In the first four months of 2008, visitors arrived in package tours grew by 16.9% over the same period of 2007 to 1,647,576.


The number of Macao residents travelling outbound in package tours in April 2008 decreased by 14.6% year-on-year to 17,084. Mainland China (75.7%), Taiwan, China (6.0%) and Thailand (5.8%) were three of the most popular tour itineraries. In the first four months of 2008, Macao residents travelling in package tours rose by 9.7% over the same period of 2007 to 70,359.


Meanwhile, 29,105 residents travelled outbound under individual arrangements using services provided by travel agencies, up by 27.5% over April 2007. Hong Kong (39.8%), Mainland China (27.4%) and Taiwan, China (10.6%) were the major destinations. In the first four months of 2008, Macao residents travelled under such arrangements rose by 19.6% year-on-year to 120,741.


At the end of April 2008, the total number of guest rooms available in the hotel sector grew by 3,146 (+24.1%) from a year earlier to 16,195 rooms.


In April 2008, a total of 544,467 guests checked into hotels and similar establishments, representing a year-on-year increase of 9.0%; the majority of the guests came from Mainland China (50.5%) and Hong Kong (22.0%). Attributable to the rising number of guest rooms, the average hotel occupancy rate dropped by 3.8 percentage points to 75.4%, with 4-star hotels leading at 82.4%; in addition, the average length of stay of hotel guests extended by 0.2 night to 1.3 nights. Total number of hotel guests reached 2,153,419 in the first four months of 2008, up by 17.4% over the same period of 2007.


In the first four months of 2008, visitor-guests staying in hotels accounted for 43.1% of the total number of tourists, up from 42.5% in the same quarter of 2007.

^^
On surface, package tour figures seem good...

For me.. I'm more interested in hotel occupancy. This is NOT good. Hotel stays up 9% but against huge increase in hotel room supply....

Occupancy down 3.8% yoy is a big loss... not sure why.. guess April not a particularly good month..

All this on background of negative news flow in Macau (visa restrictions.. casino opening restrictions, govt policy on VIP gamers). Story in SCMP on effect of visa policy in SCMP yesterday)...

MSAR Press Release:
二零零八年五月旅客入境數目 (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e91a8b0a66278f7f0838750889fa)

Visitor Arrivals for May 2008 (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e91a8b0a68388f7f0838750889fa)

MacauDailyTimes
Friday, 04 July 2008

The Police Unit of Zhuhai and ZhongShan Immigration Department confirmed that the application of private travel passes of residents in Guangdong province were only issued for two months per application, according to the Chinese language Macao Daily.
The amendment was implemented on July 1 with the period of re-application extended from one month to two months.
Such an amendment did not give any advance notification while travel agencies in mainland China were also given no prior warning.
Likewise the Custom and Inspection Department also received no prior notification, said the report.
Applicants found out while they submitted their application to the immigration department. All applications which were issued last month could only re-apply in August.
Meanwhile, in order to curb the illegal immigration by using an electronic air ticket and private passport endorsement, the application of such would be confined as well.
And the applications for business reasons were also needed to re-register under a stricter regulation, according to the news.
The travel pass application had undergone several amendments, from the original two applications at a time and ten working days, extended to one application at a time and twelve working days in May last year.
And the application was re-adjusted to one month per application in late May which has now extended to two months.
Since mainland tourists usually took the free visit to Macau, travel agencies were reported to have not had much effect.
However, mainland tourists complained the new measures caused inconveniences to them, said the report.

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that Macao registered 425,787 visitor arrivals in package tours in May 2008, up notably by 47.2% from a year earlier. Visitors from Mainland China (278,879) and Hong Kong (32,068) grew by 47.5% and 45.7% year-on-year, while those from Southeast Asia (50,074) surged by 216.8%. In the first five months of 2008, visitors arrived in package tours rose by 22.1% over the same period of 2007 to 2,073,363.

The number of Macao residents travelling outbound in package tours in May 2008 increased by 20.1% year-on-year to 16,057. Mainland China (69.5%), Thailand (8.2%) and Japan (6.9%) were the three most popular tour itineraries. In the first five months of 2008, Macao residents travelling in package tours rose by 11.5% over the same period of 2007 to 86,416.

Meanwhile, 80,395 residents travelled outbound under individual arrangements using services provided by travel agencies, an upsurge of 233.6% over May 2007. Hong Kong (79.0%), Mainland China (9.3%) and Taiwan, China (4.0%) were the major destinations. In the first five months of 2008, Macao residents travelled under such arrangements rose significantly by 60.9% year-on-year to 201,136.

At the end of May 2008, the total number of guest rooms available in the hotel sector grew by 3,182 (+24.4%) from a year earlier to 16,234 rooms.

In May 2008, a total of 544,151 guests checked into hotels and similar establishments, representing a year-on-year increase of 19.9%; the majority of the guests came from Mainland China (48.6%) and Hong Kong (22.7%). The average hotel occupancy rate rose slightly by 0.6 percentage point to 72.9%, with 4-star hotels leading at 77.5%; in addition, the average length of stay of hotel guests extended by 0.1 night to 1.4 nights. Total number of hotel guests reached 2,697,570 in the first five months of 2008, up by 17.9% over the same period of 2007.

In the first five months of 2008, visitor-guests staying in hotels accounted for 43.1% of the total number of tourists, up from 42.7% in the corresponding period of 2007.

^^
Figures rebound from April, when occupancy went down (however, it seems this may have been due to timing in Easter hols ?).

Package tours exceptionally good... however, they only represent a fragment of market as most mainlanders/HK'ers go individually... and on the positive side, driven a lot by SE Asian visitors (more positive as 1. more likely packages 2. Need hotel stay). Hence SE visitors/packages contributed to increasing length of stay to 1.4 days (also important.. stay longer, spend more). SE Asia now 50% more than HK visitors !!

And near 20% yoy increase in hotel guest is fantastic for any country ! (tho maybe LVS wanted even more !!)

Hence, altho much very negative news recently for Macau, fundamentals aren't bad at all, and would be the envy of any country wanting tourism growth.

Reckon maybe June visitor figures could be even better... gaming figures for June up 70% ! And this despite mainland travel restrictions (probably one of the worst bit of recent news)

The Macau fundamentals are still good, The Casino giants have already committed so much capital into Macau, there is no way back for them either.

The market is negative right now, depite all measuable figures being positive, are confidence driven. And right now China/Macau restrictions, along with terrible things those happenning in Us and Europe is denting confidence in a major way.

Confidence come and go and come, so long as the new Macau story remains sound, there should be a lot of support when things are normalised.

Due to the recent expansion restriction anounced by the Macau government, rumours are those both Wynn and MGM can/should no longer sit for ever (at their own pace) for plans of their Cotai land as they are currently doing, for fear that they may lose their development rights. Thus it seems like they are taking actions more quickly to excute those developments.

Hopefully it will not be too long to find out what the most beautiful hotel in the world as promised by Mr. S Wynn looks like.

Hopefully it will not be too long to find out what the most beautiful hotel in the world as promised by Mr. S Wynn looks like.

Seem like Wynn has problem getting the financing from America since its Las Vegas operation is in the sink. Now looking to raise money from an IPO in Hong Kong instead; hopefully, will do better than the one by SJM today. Read below:

Wynn Resort Plan Not Yet A Winner In Macau
Vivian Wai-yin Kwok, 07.10.08, 5:22 AM ET

Casino magnate Steve Wynn's flagship Wynn Resorts is reportedly planning a secondary listing in Hong Kong, aiming to raise $3 billion to finance the construction of a mega-resort complex in Macau. The share offering, however, is under a cloud amid negative market sentiment.

Wynn Resorts has appointed UBS (nyse: UBS - news - people ), Deutsche Bank (nyse: DB - news - people ) and Morgan Stanley (nyse: MS - news - people ) to arrange the Hong Kong listing, which is likely to be the largest initial public offering in the city this year if it proceeds. The IPO could provide funding for Wynn Resorts to complete Encore, a 400-room all-suite hotel tower scheduled to begin operating in the first half of 2010 on the Macau peninsula, as well as to construct a mammoth resort in the Cotai Strip, on reclained land linking the adjoining islands of Coloane and Taipa in the former Portuguese enclave of Macau, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported Thursday.

Wynn Resorts opened its first casino complex in Macau in 2006 and expanded it by adding 85 gaming tables, 551 new slot machines and a dramatic "performance lake" with shooting fountains as a signature attraction in December 2007. Subsequent to the expansion, the Wynn Macau Resort has approximately 390 gaming tables, 1,190 slot machines, 600 deluxe hotel rooms and suites and about 45,000 square feet of retail space.

To keep pace with local casino tycoon Stanley Ho's Sociedade de Jogos de Macau and Las Vegas-based rivals such as the Venetian, MGM Mirage (nyse: MGM - news - people ) and Las Vegas Sands (nyse: LVS - news - people ) in the former Portuguese colony, which opened up its gaming industry--formerly a monopoly concession--to competition in 2002, Wynn announced the new resort plan in the fall of last year. The resort, with a 1,500- to 2,000-room all-suite "villa hotel" and casino, will be built on Wynn's 52-acre plot in Cotai Strip, just to the east of Melco PBL Entertainment (nasdaq: MPEL - news - people )'s $2.4 billion City of Dreams resort complex.

Yet, Wynn's ambitions may be curbed thanks to uncertainty and unfavorable credit and real estate market conditions. In the United States, shares of Wynn Resorts (nasdaq: WYNN - news - people ) have slid 56%, to their present level of $77.56, from the peak at $176.14 in November last year. In Hong Kong, Macau-related stocks have all skidded more than 50% in the past few months, as severe competition has shaved casino profits.

SJM, the casino operator owned by Stanley Ho, who is ranked 113th on the Forbes billionaire list, put off its scaled-back Hong Kong listing on Wednesday by a week as a result of a lawsuit filed by Ho's estranged sister, Winnie Ho. (See " Winnie Ho Loses In Court But Not Before Delaying Brother's IPO")

Macau Daily Times
Wednesday, 16 July 2008

Melco International Development Ltd. fell to a 3.5-year low in Hong Kong trading after speculation China would implement visa rules curbing its citizens' travel to the SAR.
According to Bloomberg, Melco fell 9.5 percent to HK$5.31 at the 12:30 p.m. lunch break, set for its lowest since November 2004. Meanwhile, Crown fell 5.3 percent to a record low A$7.88 at 3:22 p.m. in Sydney. The drop was its biggest since March 3.
Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper yesterday reported Chinese travellers will no longer be allowed to visit Macau on trips to Hong Kong using the same visa. China in May limited travel by its residents to Macau to once a month as it seeks to curb growth in the high-roller gaming market. The Chinese government has subsequently cut the limit to once every two months.
“In Macau there's an intensifying policy risk from China,” said Gabriel Chan, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Credit Suisse, in an interview. “If Beijing wants to slow down Macau they'll do something to control it.”

^^^^
One measure after another China has implemented on visas to Macau... They seem to be very seriously trying to get some result...

These measures seem to becoming more and more targeted (ie harder to avoid for even VIPs). I think they want to get some results, and gaming growth of 50%+ must be reduced...

Again, this does not improve confidence... hopefully they will relax once a 'soft' landing is achieved (ie maybe gambing growth 'only 20-30%) is achieved.

And maybe, this is also part of the Olympics restrictions (unlikely), and post-Olympics, maybe they start relaxing..

Macau tightens visa rules
Hong Kong Standard
Thursday, July 17, 2008

Mainlanders issued travel permits to Hong Kong will not be able to include Macau in their itineraries beginning in September unless they have specific endorsements to do so, it was announced yesterday.

The measure was announced by the Macau Public Security Police Force two weeks after the mainland government reduced from a month to every two months the maximum frequency with which Guangdong residents could apply for a Macau travel permit.

There had been speculation the decision could result in hard-core gamblers circumventing the restriction by using the Hong Kong route to Macau.

A Macau police spokesman said each SAR has its own immigration policy and Macau is trying to bring its rules in line with Hong Kong.

Barry Mak Lui-ming, assistant professor of tourism and hotel management at Polytechnic University, fears the tightened measures may deter some mainland visitors from visiting both Hong Kong and Macau.

However, the Hong Kong Tourism Board said it does not think the new measure would have a severe effect on the territory. A spokeswoman said data show most mainland visitors come to Hong Kong first before heading to Macau. As such the Macau measure will not have an impact on the number of visitors coming to Hong Kong.

The Macau police spokesman said the force had seen a trend in which mainlanders entering Macau using their Chinese passports overstay and committed criminal acts.

To combat this trend, all mainlanders entering Macau with a Chinese passport from August 1 can only stay for seven days instead of the current 14 days.

If they do not go to a second destination after the seven-day period, they will only be allowed to stay in Macau for two days on their next visit and denied entry on their third visit.

Some weeks ago, there were reports that Beijing would be clamping down on mainlander travel to Macau (targeting in particular the misuse of public funds for gambling by corrupt officials). So far however, there has been no let up in mainlander tourist arrivals in Macau. Mainlander arrivals were up by 36.6% YoY in June, maintaining the steep uptrend.

The strong tourism flows reinforce other indicators of sustained buoyant household demand in China. Specifically, retail sales soared by 23% YoY in June. (As a reflection of robust domestic demand, that is one more reason to remain concerned about China's inflation prospects notwithstanding the fall in CPI).

Following the positive signal from Macau, should we expect a similar large increase in mainlander arrivals to Hong Kong? (Hong Kong's June tourism data will be released at the end of this month). We would be wary of making premature assumptions. Gambling remains the main attraction for mainlanders and, not surprisingly, the sharp uptrend in Macau's tourist arrivals contrasts with Hong Kong's relatively flat trend. Mainlander arrivals in Hong Kong have increased by 11% this year compared to the 27% increase in Macau.

There was another point of interest in the Macau tourism data. While mainlander tourism to Macau has soared, Hong Kong tourists to Macau contracted by 5.9% YoY in the second quarter . This was one more indication of bearish household sentiment in Hong Kong, reinforcing the outlook for a soft June retail sales release at the end of this month and slowing consumer spending over the rest of the year (as argued in the first comment).

HK Standard

Benjamin Scent

Monday, July 28, 2008

Shares of Hong Kong-listed Macau plays have taken a beating recently, and it is becoming clear that American plays in the SAR casino market have the long- term advantage.
The Venetian will benefit from recent trends, as will diversified Macau companies like Shun Tak (0242).

The valuation of the Macau gaming market has fallen by more than 50 percent since November, according to Goldman Sachs analyst Simon Cheung. Although a rash of new regulations could hurt some operators, Cheung said Macau will still see a 15 percent compound annual growth rate in gaming revenue between this year and 2012.

But where the value lies has changed. A glut in the supply of tables has driven up the value of customers.

This benefits junket operators who bring in the VIP customers and have been able to raise their commission rates. But it hurts casino operators, who are seeing their profit margins disappear because of the higher rates.

In this situation, the American operators have the advantage, since they cater more to the mass market.

As Beijing tries to slow the flood of mainlanders coming to Macau to gamble, The Venetian will benefit because of its more diversified offerings, which combine a casino with extensive shopping and entertainment options for a more all-around experience.

Even its name will help. There have been reports that travel agents in Guangdong are finding it easier to get new packages for trips to The Venetian approved, while some packages to other casinos have been rejected.

The reason? The full name of The Venetian is "The Venetian Macao- Resort-Hotel," making it much more palatable than gambling-only rivals.

While local casino operators are still hurting from new visa restrictions, diversified Macau companies still offer a strong growth story. Investors may want to look at Shun Tak (0242), according to Goldman Sachs, because it commands strong pricing power in property, which has a better outlook than the Macau casino industry.

Melco International (0200) is also worth a look as its non-Melco Crown businesses could present significant upside if well-executed, Cheung said.

^^
Wonder if LVS grumbling about unfairness (ie how much it has invested in Macau's resorts), etc about VIP having an effect ? (or direct pressure ?).

Macau looks beyond China to fuel tourism boom

BEIJING, Aug 14 (Reuters) - The tiny former Portuguese colony of Macau wants to attract more international visitors to reduce its reliance on Greater China, and hopes to do that partly by moving upmarket, a senior official said on Thursday.

Tourism in Macau, which returned to Beijing's rule in 1999, is booming on the back of visits by increasingly wealthy Chinese tourists and a massive expansion of its gambling industry.

Revenues in Macau's $15 billion gaming industry overtook those of Las Vegas in late 2006. Macau now has 29 casinos, run by the likes of Las Vegas Sands Corp and MGM Mirage and more are on the way.

Last year almost 30 million people visited Macau, an on-year rise of more than one-fifth, but less than one-tenth came from outside of mainland China, Hong Kong or Taiwan, and most did not stay overnight.

"In the first half of this year, more than 10 percent of visitors were international. We hope we can gradually raise this, for over the long-term Macau ought to develop the international market," Helena Fernandes, deputy head of Macau's tourist office, told a news conference.

Tourism and gambling revenues make up more than half of Macau's GDP.

The push to look past China was partially sparked by new restrictions on mainlanders visiting Macau, introduced last month to try and slow the territory's galloping economy and over concerns too many Chinese officials were fritting money away in Macanese casinos.

"Obviously from a strategic point of view we feel this is a very good moment for us to not just pursue quantity but also to give a very good look at the quality of what we're providing," Fernandes said.

"Strategy-wise it's very important for us to go for diversity," she added. "Diversity in terms of product, and diversity in terms of the markets we are pursuing. So international markets will be very important in the future."

The number of visitors from Southeast Asia, especially Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, has rocketed, and Macau is opening a tourist office in Indonesia to go after that market.

More flights to Macau by budget airlines such as Malaysia's Air Asia have helped drive this growth.

To cater to visitors who want more than just gambling, Macau is investing big on infrastructure and new buildings.

The Macau Science Centre, designed by renowned architect I.M. Pei, will feature a planetarium as well as conference facilities, and more than 70 new hotels will open in the next decade.

Macau's airport is slated for expansion, and a light rail system will eventually shuttle people around Macau.

But all of this has raised concerns the city is growing unsustainably fast, leading to traffic jams and social issues.

Not a problem, Fernandes said.

"With Macau's improvements -- in terms of the number of hotels we can offer, in terms of the transportation reorganisation -- in actual fact the carrying capacity also changes over time," she said.

"Right now, we are still within the upper limits. Obviously, with the improvement of facilities that upper limit will hopefully be pushed even further."

Macau Daily Times
Tuesday, 30 September 2008

A total of 56 hotel projects which were still under construction or waiting for approval in the second quarter this year could provide at least 34,400 more guest rooms to Macau's tourism industry.
According to information from the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT), 21 hotel projects were under construction, a drop of two from the previous quarter.
Preliminary plans submitted by developers showed that 23,600 guest rooms were estimated, 27.7 percent less than compared with the first quarter figure.
The total construction area was about 1.86 million square metres, down by 48.4 percent from the previous quarter between January and March.
The 21 hotel projects could provide about 13,000 parking spaces, the DSSOPT said.
Six of the 21 projects would have guest rooms below 100, three hotels between 101 and 300 rooms, four hotels between 301 and 600, one hotel between 601 and 1,200, two hotels between 2,000 and 3,000, and one hotel with over 3,000 rooms and two with over 6,000 rooms.
However, two of the hotel projects had not yet to provide the number of rooms they were going to build, the DSSOPT added.
On the other hand, 35 projects were in the process of obtaining government approval in the second quarter of the year, a slight increase of one over the previous quarter.
Of this, apart from 12 projects which could not yet provide figures of their guest rooms, the remaining 23 hotels would build about 10,800 rooms in total.
The DSSOPT said 10 of the 23 projects would have 301 to 600 rooms each, while one project planned to build 5,000 rooms.
The 35 projects awaiting approval would also add 3,000 more parking spaces to the industry.

Golden Week better than expected for some businesses
Monday, 06 October 2008
Despite the central government's imposition on tighter visa restrictions for mainland tourists, Macau's profits during the Golden Week holiday were favourable. Souvenir and jewellery shop owners said business has gone up by 20 or even 30 percent when compared to the figures from the same period last year.
On the last day of the Golden Week, possibly because of the heavy rain, there were not many tourists on the streets but according to some souvenir shop owners and pastries the business was better than expected.
Besides restrictions on the chinese visa, also the financial crisis on the stock markets were considered the two strong reasons to predict that profits would drop down 20 percent Nevertheless especially for the first three days, visitors actually climbed up 20 to 30 percent. About 80 percent of the total of visitors were from the mainland. Jewelry shops had thought the profits would decrease but in fact it turned out business had grown 20 to 30 percent greater than last year.
However dried seafood shop owners in the inner harbor area said business had dropped a lot. As they said business was even worse than last year, during the same period. They pointed out Pier 16 as well as typhoon Higos, were the main reasons for business dropping down.

Macau has overtaken Las Vegas in terms of earnings from gaming and tourism. That is incredible. Asians must really have the money to spend, gambling and having fun.:cheers:

MSAR Press Release:
旅遊局與非凡航空合作推廣商務旅遊 (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e91d22c0318c8f7ff19edd418fdf)

Viva Macau Airlines e Direcção dos Serviços de Turismo apresentam à Austrália a mais nova capital MICE da Ásia (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e91d22c0337c8f7ff19edd418fdf)

Viva Macau Airlines and Macau Government Tourist Office Introduce Asia’s Newest MICE Capital to Australia (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e91d22c032f88f7ff19edd418fdf)

--MICE stands for Meetings, Incentive, Conferences, Events.

RTHK
29-10-2008


Premier Wen Jiabao has outlined how Beijing will assist Hong Kong to weather the financial crisis. The measures include speeding up infrastructure projects and widening the individual travellers scheme. Speaking during his visit to Russia, Mr Wen said the action would support Hong Kong through the current economic turmoil in five ways. He said the Bank of China and mainland regulators would be asked to increase communication with their Hong Kong counterparts to develop contingency plans for dealing with the downturn. The premier said the mainland would also speed-up infrastructure projects, especially the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge. Other measures include safeguarding food supplies to the territory to help relieve the burden of inflation on Hong Kong people. Mr Wen also said the current individual traveller scheme would be widened. He said Hong Kong was economically sound, adding that as long as the SAR government implemented appropriate measures, Hong Kong should be able to overcome the economic turmoil. He said the government also needed to learn from the crisis to ensure the SAR's sustainable development. For the time being, he urged local people to have confidence.

^^^^
Think these comments will also apply to Macau...

hope so, especially when Macau is behaving as such a good boy these days!

Macau always has been a good boy...

MSAR Press Releases:
二零零七年酒店業調查結果 (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e91d3eff62cf8f6f5ae3c10c0842)

Resultados do Inquérito aos Hotéis e Similares referente ao ano de 2007 (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e91d4782fc258f7b3972b87d0bf6)

Results of the Hotels and Similar Establishments Survey 2007 (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e91d4782fd108f7b3972b87d0bf6)

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that Macao registered 304,260 visitor arrivals in package tours in September 2008, down by 2.1% from a year earlier. Visitors from Southeast Asia (34,324) soared significantly by 80.0% year-on-year, while those from Mainland China (178,835) and Hong Kong (36,673) decreased by 6.4% and 1.7%. In the first nine months of 2008, visitor arrivals in package tours rose by 17.6% over the same period of 2007 to 3,496,930.


The number of Macao residents travelling outbound in package tours increased by 19.0% year-on-year to 15,819 in September 2008. Mainland China (71.9%), Japan (10.1%) and Taiwan, China (5.4%) were the three most popular tour itineraries. In the first nine months of 2008, Macao residents travelling in package tours rose by 7.3% over the same period of 2007 to 170,142.


Meanwhile, 30,903 residents travelled outbound under individual arrangements using services provided by travel agencies, down notably by 42.9% over September 2007. Hong Kong (44.6%), Mainland China (23.9%) and Taiwan, China (10.4%) were the major destinations. In the first nine months of 2008, outbound residents travelling under such arrangements dropped by 5.9% year-on-year to 286,204.


At the end of September 2008, the total number of guest rooms available in the hotel sector grew by 1,073 (+6.8%) from a year earlier to 16,792 rooms.


In September 2008, a total of 473,600 guests checked into hotels and similar establishments, down by 9.4% year-on-year; the majority of the guests came from Mainland China (41.7%) and Hong Kong (25.5%). The average hotel occupancy rate dropped by 4.7 percentage points to 66.8%, with 5-star hotels leading at 69.5%; in addition, the average length of stay of hotel guests extended by 0.1 night to 1.5 nights. Total number of hotel guests reached 4,815,712 in the first nine months of 2008, up by 14.2% over the same period of 2007.


In the first nine months of 2008, visitor-guests staying in hotels accounted for 43.0% of the total number of tourists, up slightly from 42.9% in the corresponding period of 2007.

^^^^
Think we already heard Sep figure was going to be bad..... :ohno:
This was seen in gaming figures down y-o-y and off a lot compared more on month.
Likewise, did hear that Oct (national day) figure was going to be better for mainland tourist, but again, latter part probably would be offset by financial crisis.

Visitor arrival up 8 pct last month
Saturday, 22 November 2008
The number of visitor arrivals reached 2.6 million last month, a year-on-year increase of 8 percent, with visitors from the mainland at 1.5 million, Southeast Asia at 143,234 and from Hong Kong at 701,429 rising by 12.2 percent, 23.9 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.
The latest figure released yesterday by the Statistics and Census Services, same-day visitors took up 54.9 percent of the total arrivals, at 1,440,047.
The majority of the visitors came from the mainland, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, which accounted for 58.5 percent, 26.7 percent and 5.5 percent of the total, respectively. Among mainland visitors, 470,049 travelled to Macau under the Individual Visit Scheme, down by 25.9 percent year-on year.
In the first ten months of this year, visitor arrivals reached 25.1 million, up by 14.5 percent year-on-year, with visitors from the mainland accounting for 14.6 million of the total and Southeast Asia both growing by 21.9 percent and 43.1 percent, respectively, with those from Hong Kong rising slightly by 0.1 percent.
Furthermore, same-day visitors made up 53.1 percent of the total arrivals, at 13.3 million.
Analysed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by sea increased by 9.4 percent over the first ten months of last year to 7.9 million, with 1.1 million arriving at the Provisional Ferry Terminal in Taipa. Meanwhile, 6.5 million visitors arrived at the Outer Harbour, down by 5.3 percent year-on-year.
Visitor arrivals by land rose by 16.9 percent to 15.7 million, while visitors arriving through the Border Gate increased by 13.3 percent to 14.9 million, with the majority being visitors from the mainland at 80.4 percent and Hong Kong at 14.1 percent.
In addition, visitor arrivals by air totalled 1,423,338, up by 19.7 percent over the first ten months of last year.
Figures show visitors arriving at the Macao International Airport rose by 18 percent to 1,393,781, with the majority coming from Taiwan at 35.1 percent, Southeast Asia at 30.3 percent and the mainland at 22.1 percent.

^^^^
It may be up yoy, but peak figures were hit in something like 1Q...
Growth has definitely stalled/going back. To maintain similar growth of 1Q, figures need to be up approx 25% (if you look at first 10 months, excluding last few growth easily over 20%).
Since 1 year ago, you had more ramping up from Venetian, opening of Wynn expansion, PointNeuf, Grand Lisboa, MGM etc...
So 9 pc is feable.

If you want to spend effort, can compare with september m-o-m change... but maybe irrelevant as October is 'golden week' (tho admit, some of this begins in end-Sep).
So very hard to say if figures are OK, bad, or very bad esp for this month.
Further, some additional restrictions began I think on 1 Oct and may take time to filter thru.

30 million visitors, over HK!

MSAR Press Release:
澳門旅客破三千萬 全力推進多元化發展 重點推介世遺 慶祝回歸十周年 (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e91eca3e520b8f6ab64435cb1009)

Macau ultrapassa os 30 milhões de visitantes impulsiona em força a diversificação
Património Mundial em destaque no 10o aniversário da RAEM (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e91eca3e56c28f6ab64435cb1009)

2008 Arrivals Surpassed 30 million mark Tourism Diversification key development strategy for 2009 “World Heritage” focus of promotion to celebrate 10th anniversary of MSAR (http://www.gov.mo/egi/Portal/rkw/public/view/showcomp.jsp?id=InfoShowTemp&docid=c373e91eca3e5a3b8f6ab64435cb1009)

Macau, China, 15 Jan - More than 30 million visitors travelled to Macau in 2008, which represented an increase of 11 percent against 2007, João Costa Antunes, director of the Macau Tourism Office, said Wednesday.

At a press conference, Antunes said that in 2008 a total of 30.18 million people visited Macau and of this amount, 17.5 million people came from the Chinese mainland, which represents a rise of 17 percent compared to 2007. Mainland China is the most important tourist market for the region, bews agency MacauNews reported Thursday.

The number of visitors from mainland China accounted for 58 percent of the total number of visitors to Macau in 2008, which compares to 55.1 percent in 2007.

In regards to the amount that other markets represent for Macau, Hong Kong decreased three percentage points to 27.3 percent and Taiwan fell 0.9 percentage points to 4.4 percent, whilst the international market rose by 1 percentage point to 10.3 percent.

Macau has 57 hotels and 18,820 rooms, and Antunes said he expects that in the next two years Macau will increase its capacity by 4,000 rooms.

Antunes said that in 2009 Macau is going to increase promotion of the region abroad, focusing on Historical Heritage as classified by UNESCO. (macauhub)

More than 30 million visitors travelled to Macau in 2008, which represented an increase of 11 percent against 2007, João Costa Antunes, director of the Macau Tourism Office, said Wednesday.



I suspect this figure has exceeded Hong Kong's visitors number. Can anyone confirm this is correct?

And does anybody know the comparison of the 4th Quarter (Oct-Dec) of 2008 vs 2007 after the sharp slowdown in global economy after the Lehman collapse? I just wonder if that 11% growth is only due to the growth taken place in first three quarters...

I suspect this figure has exceeded Hong Kong's visitors number. Can anyone confirm this is correct?

Probably, for the second year in a row. Hong Kong has attracted around 23-28 million for the last three years.

Edit: Found it, here you go...

http://www.tourism.gov.hk/english/statistics/statistics_perform.html

It's interesting to note Hong Kong doesn't have THAT much of a discrepancy in visitor arrivals from month to month. I was expecting, for example, 1.5 million visitors in the trough season and over 3 million visitors in the peak seasons.

What's it like for Macau?

Not sure where HK figures are, but section from SCMP today saying HK Tourism Board will have 10% bonus cut due to performance...
"the number of visitors to HK only increased 4.7 per cent year on year last year to 29.5million, 3.3 percentage points lower than the board's target, while tourists spent HK$4.1bn less than the expected HK$152.7bn..."

Singapore's tourists figure is down 2% compared to 2007. In comparison, Macau's 11% growth is quite impressive compared to Hong Kong and Singapore.

By Kelvin Wong

Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- China’s Guangdong province may allow its residents to travel to nearby Hong Kong and Macau more frequently, Ming Pao reported, citing contents of a cooperation agreement between officials from the three governments.

The agreement proposes issuing individual travel visas to the cities for all of Guangdong’s 95 million population, the Hong Kong-based, Chinese-language newspaper reported. The officials met yesterday to discuss details of the agreement, the paper said.

The new visa policy may be put in place before China’s week- long Labor Day holiday in May, the paper said. It could help boost Hong Kong’s visitors by 3 percent this year, the report said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kelvin Wong in Hong Kong at kwong40@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: February 19, 2009 18:33 EST

Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Shares of gaming companies rose in early trading in Hong Kong after the Guangdong provincial government agreed to allow residents to travel to neighboring Hong Kong and Macau more frequently.

Melco International Development Ltd., controlled by the son of Macau gaming tycoon Stanley Ho, rose as much as 10 percent to HK$2.27, Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. gained as much as 11 percent to HK$1.31 and SJM Holdings Ltd., Stanley Ho’s casino holding company, advanced 5.1 percent to HK$1.65 at 10:54 a.m. local time. The benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 1.9 percent.

Officials from Guangdong, Macau and Hong Kong met yesterday and agreed to enact measures allowing more mainland residents to visit the two semi-autonomous cities, Hong Kong’s government said in an e-mailed statement yesterday evening.

Macau is the only place in China where casino gambling is legal.

To contact the reporter on this story: Wing-Gar Cheng in Beijing at wgcheng@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: February 19, 2009 22:19 EST

Both SAR need Guangdong as Guangdong needs them so this latest agreement is just one more for the equation.

Story also in SCMP, but with figures saying up to 20m visitors coming to HK and Macau (if Beijing approves). However, many others sceptical about this 20m figure (given HK/Macau gets almost 30m annually now), and given GD's population is 90m (however migrants boost this figures up by 20-30% easily (eg Shenzhen actual population quite low, but easily 50% non-resident and currently cannot visit HK if not non-resident (except to visit HK Disneyland on packages only :). I think plan expands this portion (non-resident) in Shenzhen to whole of GD province (plus allow them to freely visit whole of HK, not just package tours to HK Disneyland).

Macao's visitor arrivals in package tours up 9.7 pct in January
MACAO, March 17 (PNA/Xinhua) -- Macao's visitor arrivals in package tours increased by 9.7 percent year-on-year to 458,920 in January, according to the figures released Tuesday by the city's Statistics and Census Bureau.

The figure showed that visitor arrivals in package tours in January from the Chinese mainland (328,956), Japan (23,759) and Taiwan (22,937) rose by 5.1 percent, 55.6 percent and 61.9 percent year on year, respectively, while those from Hong Kong (20,638) decreased by 28.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of local residents travelling outbound in package tours decreased by 29.2 percent year on year to 12,842 in January. The Chinese mainland and Japan were the most popular tour itineraries, according to the Bureau. (PNA/Xinhua)
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=6&sid=&nid=6&rid=264730

Macao travel agencies cancel tourist trips to Thailand
MACAO, April 13 (PNA/Xinhua) -- The Travel Industry Council of Macao Monday announced that over 40 local travel agencies, which are members of the Council, have decided to suspend their package tour service in Bangkok until April 20, due to the ongoing political unrest there.

Aside from the member travel agencies, the Council also discussed the issue with a non-member agency which has also moved to cancel tourist trips to Bangkok, and a total of seven such package tour trips were canceled in the next nine days, said Andy Wu, president of the Council.

Wu also said that the Council will meet again next week and decide whether to cancel other package tours scheduled to depart for Bangkok after April 20.

Saturday's clash in Bangkok between Thailand's troops and "red-shirts" anti-government protesters, who are supporters of ousted former Prime Minister Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has led to 21 deaths and 858 injuries. Despite the bloodshed, the protesters continued staging demonstrations against current government.

The government of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) has already issued its travel warnings, in which local residents were told not to travel to Thailand as the demonstration staged by anti- government protesters turned violent in Thailand's capital.

A package tour group of 25 tourists returned to Macao safely from Thailand by air last night, and the tourists said that their tour there was not affected by the protest.

Thailand has long been the first choice of Macao tourists, as approximately thirty to forty percent of Macao's outbound tourists go to the country every year, according to Wu. (PNA/Xinhua) http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=&nid=6&rid=269409