A minimum of 960.000 individuals are projected to pay a visit to Macau throughout the duration of Lunar New Year, which will last 8 days, with an average number of visitors of 120.000 daily, according to Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, director of the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO).

Almost all rooms are already reserved in major hotels:

Hotel occupancy should get back to almost 90% throughout the aforementioned New Year’s celebration, which will occur from February 10 to February 17 of this ongoing year. Commenting on this topic at the event on February 8, Fernandes commented that, looking back on previous experience, the number of visitors will reach its peak during the 3rd and 4th days of Chinese New Year.

In this regard, she said: “It will be dominated by visitors from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, with at least 960,000 tourists visiting Macau during the eight-day holiday.”

Furthermore, the check-up of the formal websites the Macau’s 6 concessionaires indicates that rooms in hotels have been reserved so far in the biggest hotels for the period of February 12 – 13, involving at the Morpheus, Grand Lisboa, Lisboa, MGM Cotai, MGM Macau, JW Marriott Macau, Hotel Okura, Banyan Tree Macau, Galaxy Macau, Wynn Palace, Wynn Macau, The Londoner Macao, The Parisian Macao and The Venetian Macao.

In addition, rates at the hotels with 5-stars that are still bookable span from about HK$2,700 to HK$5,000, which is approximately US$345 to US$640, by the night, according to the platforms for online booking. For instance, the newly-opened W Hotel at Studio City has just 1 king room left, which costs HK$5,029. Then, Ponte 16 located in the historical district of Macau also has only 1 king room un-booked which is priced at HK$3,060, and the latest YOHO Hotel charges a standard rate of around HK$3,000 for a double suite.

Relatedly, a source from the hotel industry noted that hotel reservations for this Lunar New Year are more promising compared to the previous year. On that note, they commented: “Almost all two-star and budget accommodations in the old districts have run out of rooms, while five-star hotels are full. I believe this year’s occupancy rate will be 90%, with a conservative minimum of 85%, which is a return to the pre-pandemic situation.”

Occupancy rate at hotels to increase significantly during the upcoming holiday:

Fernandes also said that hotels occupancy will come to 90% during the upcoming holiday, as mentioned above. Speaking about this, she commented according to Inside Asian Gaming: “Hotel prices will be a bit higher during some holidays, but we haven’t seen any sky-high hotel room prices. The MGTO has already held a meeting with the hotel industry and the travel trade in January this year to discuss the various tasks during the holidays, and the hotel industry is expected to keep an eye on the fluctuation of hotel room rates.”

However, in the previous year, for Chinese New Year, there were just 7 official holiday days in mainland China, and the overall number of visitors reached 451.000. In addition, the average hotel occupancy was 85.7%. Relatedly, during 2019, the same holiday lured 1.213.487 visitors to Macau, and the average hotel occupancy was 96.7%.