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Macau Attempts To Stimulate Real Estate Market | Add Comment

    • Macau Hotel Casinos 3/23/2009
    This is a well researched post illustrating the hurdles Macau’s economy is facing right now. As a blogger researching the world-wide casino industry, I was not surprised after reading this and similar reports about Macau’s slowdown. It seems gambling in general is down across the board, and will be for some time. For example, Las Vegas has been showing comparable economic numbers, such as increased unemployment, a huge cut in residential sales, and multiple projects placed on hold. This comparable slowdown could be unrelated, however because of the large presence of western companies now in Macau, I think it may be worth Macanese analysts’ time to pay close attention to their American counterpart’s rescue attempts. Toward the end of the article, it is suggested that because of an 8.3 percent YoY increase in the number of rooms, the average hotel occupancy rate sustained a high level of 79 percent as at the end of 2008, and that “[these] figures reflected the solid support of the hotel industry.” While this may be good news, the logic fails to acknowledge gaming as Macau’s primary revenue source, supported by gamblers coming in often times for a period no greater than two nights. I believe that if the Chinese government continues to place visitor restrictions on Macau, the SAR must change its business focus from VIPs towards a genuine middle-class entertainment destination, attracting visitors from across Asia. Therefore, until this change takes place, Macau’s economy could continue to follow Las Vegas’s footsteps and become one of the worst hit industries in China.

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