THE MACAU METRO MONITOR, JANUARY 24, 2014
BLOCK BOOKINGS FOR VIPS HOIST HOTEL ROOM RATES Macau Business Daily
A jump in room rates in four-star and five-star hotels over the Lunar New Year holidays is due in part to block bookings by VIP gaming promoters. Sources expected rates over the peak period to be at least double what they were usually. The president of the Macau Travel Industry Council, Andy Wu Keng Kuong, said four-star and five-star hotel rooms were “almost fully booked” for the Lunar New Year holidays, which begin on January 31. “The third to the sixth days of the Chinese New Year holidays are usually the period with the heaviest bookings,” Mr Wu said. “The nightly rates for four-star and five-star hotels in this period range from 3,000 patacas [US$375] to 7,000 patacas,” he said.
MORE CHINESE TRAVELLING ABROAD FOR SPRING FESTIVAL Macau Daily Times
A survey by China’s tourism academy shows, among the city dwellers who bought vacation packages for the Chinese New Year, 40% are travelling abroad, 30% are going somewhere within the Chinese mainland, and the rest are travelling to Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan, CCTV reports. China’s Tourism Academy predicts that tourists during Spring Festival this year will number up to 225 million. Yu Zirong, Deputy General Manager of China Int’l Travel Service, Shanxi, said. Yu Zirong also said the volume of individual and small group travel during Spring Festival has risen by about 30% over last year.
FRESH PUSH BY 'SATELLITE' CASINOS TO OWN JUNKET OPS Macau Business Daily
The drive for Macau’s satellite casino operators to acquire interests in VIP junket operations appears to be gathering pace. China Star Entertainment Group Ltd says in a Hong Kong filing it’s in talks to acquire a company entitled to profits from VIP gaming in the city. China Star is controlling entity for Hotel Lan Kwai Fong in downtown Macau, a property under a casino licence from SJM. The significance of the moves is that they could potentially mean defacto casino operators making commercial decisions about VIP credit issuance or at least having a direct commercial interest in policy on such credit issuance – even if the junket room is not on their own premises.