China’s Golden Week Boosts Macau Profits

Macau has seen a massive boost in visitors – as expected – thanks to the Chinese Golden Week celebrations. Chinese tourists have been flocking to the gambling mecca, starved of mobile casinos, and have been spending all their hard earned cash in the many casinos within the principality.

With Chinese gambling laws still exceptionally tight, Chinese tourist numbers rose 10.7% year on year in Macau. Total tourist numbers were only 4.7%, however, fueling more talk of Macau’s diminishing importance to the greater East Asian gambling market.

With two new mega casinos surely on the way, Asian gamblers will have more choice than ever, but the impact on the Chinese regions of Macau and Hong Kong could be profound.

The first of these new casinos will be in the Russian Far East, as the government announced the new Primorye Gambling Zone, which will have a huge mega casino resort close to Vladivostok. This is very close to the Chinese border, so you would expect many Northern Chinese gamblers to make the short journey.

In the other major piece of gambling news in the region, Japan will likely sanction a casino resort in the capital Tokyo, to take advantage of tourism for the 2020 Olympic Games. With huge casino resorts throughout the region, Macau may find its market share reduced, yet profits are still likely to rise as the importance of Chinese gamblers takes on a greater role.

In the first five days of Golden Week, 678,371 tourists arrived in Macau, 82% of whom were from the Chinese mainland. These figures are likely to contribute to the highest gross revenue figures October has ever seen. Revenues from Golden Week alone are expected to have risen by between 14-17% year on year, again stressing the importance of Chinese holidays to Macau’s success.