The Macau Metro Monitor, May 14, 2012

PACKAGE TOURS AND HOTEL OCCUPANCY RATE FOR MARCH 2012 DSEC

Visitor arrivals in package tours surged by 51.1% YoY to 754,163 in March 2012.  Visitors from Mainland China (531,096) increased by 45.8%, with 174,477 coming from Guangdong Province; besides, those from Taiwan (70,556); Hong Kong (35,765); the Republic of Korea (28,449); and Japan (23,402) soared by 163.7%, 87.0%, 42.9% and 20.3% YoY respectively.

In the first quarter of 2012, visitors in package tours totaled 2,050,476, up by 45.6% YoY to account for 29.5% of the total visitor arrivals, higher than the 21.9% from the same period of 2011.

Number of available guest rooms of the 95 hotels and guest-houses totaled 22,272 at the end of March 2012, an increase of 2,143 rooms (+10.6 YoY), with those of the 5-star hotels accounting for 63.7% of the total.  The average length of stay decreased by 0.08 night to 1.4 nights.

PEOPLE'S BANK OF CHINA CUTS BANKS' RESERVE REQUIREMENT RATIOS 50 BPS, EFFECTIVE 18-MAY Reuters

On May 18, for large banks, the required reserve ratio will be cut to 20.0% from 20.5%.