The Revival of Macau Goes into the Luxury Retail Market
Sparkling casinos and world-renowned hotels welcome visitors to Macau, an ancient Portuguese colony that has become the People's Republic of China's Special Administrative Region. The blend of Las Vegas-style rhinestones and rich history is especially enjoyed by travelers.
Since visitors aren't just there for gaming, specialists said there was also a correlation between the number of people coming in town and the casinos production.
Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating results in Macau's casinos sector since the end of 2019, and one brokerage company said it is "now not assuming" that recovery will be likely before 2023.
One short-term option among others will be to concentrate on the luxury mass market, helping casinos to recover lost income from gross gaming, when the city reported a 64% decrease in gross domestic product (GDP) in the Q3 of 2020.
Macau's Baccarat Improves Q3 Earnings
Macau's Baccarat produced sales of MOP2.34 billion (us$293.0 million) in Q3: this is a decline of 92.5% over a year. Over that time, VIP Baccarat had a market share of 47.9% and mass market Baccarat totaled a market share of 38.40%, roughly MOP1.88 billion.
However, this particular time of the year has been the least complicated for the region since the pandemic began last year: the regular tourist traffic coming to Macau in mid-November was around 20,600, compared to 19,000 in October, said Maria Helena Senna de Fernandes, director of the Macau Government Tourism Bureau, during a city's Tourism Development Committee assembly.
Macau also focuses on the sport industry with expects to hold many competitions from next year, programs that will certainly place the region on the right recovery track.
In the long term, analysts of Sanford Bernstein research firm Vitaly Umansky, Tianjiao Yu, Kelsey Zhu and Xiaonan Zhang expect “Macau GGR to grow at a 2 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), driven by 6 percent CAGR in mass (in particular, premium mass) while negatively impacted by -4 percent CAGR in VIP” over the 2020-2023 time frame.
Premium mass market could pull in a lot of casino gamers, but Macau still needs to open up new viewpoints and new ways of attracting visitors and variety their recreational possibilities to increase their GDP.
Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng proposed the strategy, including sports and casinos, for next year and beyond.
