Hotel prices drop during CNY holidays

Mainland China’s seven-day Chinese New Year Golden Week holidays that started February 18 wrapped up last week. The Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) released a statement saying that according to data provided by the hotel industry, during Golden Week the average room rate of 3 to 5-star hotels in Macau dropped some15.4 per cent to MOP2,019.
Further, during this period the average occupancy rate of such hotels reached 87.5 per cent, a year-on-year decline of 6.9 percentage points.
The current number of rooms supplied by all hotels and guesthouses in Macau stands at 29,382 rooms.
Guesthouses averaged an occupancy rate for the same period of 74 per cent, down 8.6 percentage points; 2-star hotels 73.9 per cent, down 13.4 percentage points; 3-star hotels 85.2 per cent, down 8.1 percentage points; 4-star hotels 84.1 percent, down 8.7 per cent, and 5-star hotels 93.3 per cent, down 3.9 percentage points.
The average room rate during Golden Week for 3 to 5-star hotels in Macau dropped by 15.4 per cent to 2,019.3 patacas. The average room rate of guesthouses was 726.1 patacas, a year-on-year decrease of 4.9 per cent, while the average room rate of 2-star hotels was 1,080.3 patacas, down 11.1 per cent, 3-star hotels 1,881.7 patacas, down 21.1 per cent, 4-star hotels 1,725.7 patacas, down 20.7 per cent and 5-star hotels 2,450.5, down 5.8 per cent.
According to preliminary statistics, during Chinese New Year Golden Week visitor arrivals to Macau numbered 1,028,559 (including non-resident workers and students), a slight decrease of 2.4 per cent vis-a-vis the corresponding period last year, among whom 760,623 were Mainland visitors, down by two per cent.
The authorities said that as last year’s Golden Week extended from the first to the seventh day of Chinese New Year, according to the lunar calendar, this year Golden Week started on the last day of the year and ended on the sixth day of the New Year (February 18 to 24). As Chinese traditionally travel less on the last day of the year that may have contributed to a dip in the figures.
Looking at the statistics referring to the period between the first and the seventh day of the Chinese New Year (February 19 to 25) the number of arrivals recorded (including non-resident workers and students) reached 1,088,579, up 3.3 per cent compared to the identical period last year. On this comparison, some 819,266 visitors were from Mainland China, a 5.6 per cent increase.