It’s official: something is happening across the border in our hinterland, we just don’t know what. Visitor numbers are surging from the mainland, especially Guangdong. In july, they were up a sizzling 28% over the same month last year. That’s off a base of 650,000 in a single month!
According to the latest stats from the government, overall visitor numbers were up 18% YoY in July. We saw it halfway through, called it, and will go on record now to say we expect similar numbers for August, too.
Interestingly enough, however, these visitors have not been lifting everyone’s boats equally. Perhaps counter-intuitively for the summer months, the Taipa ferry terminal, which services the big integrated resorts on Cotai, actually saw fewer passengers than in July last year. This might just be due to a tightening of the Venetian’s comp policies, but it certainly shows in the numbers that, despite higher ticket prices, Turbojet and First Ferry (now one and the same owner) did a better job bringing people to Macau in July than Cotaijet.
Or it might just mean that the Cotai resorts turned their focus more to the mainland, which would also make sense, as arrivals via the Gongbei land connection shot up 15% over last July.
Whatever the case, it’s clear that if current trends continue, marketing executives are going to have to revisit their advertising priorities again as the percentage of mainlanders in the total arrivals pie continues to grow – up to 57% now and climbing.
The numbers must also give some comfort to investors scared by recent analysis of luxury-brand sales in China. Recession? Not from where we are sitting. Used with permission & copyright IntelMacau.com
