Retendering21-22

fev26 WYNN The expansion of the Chairman’s Club gaming area at the Cotai casino resort Wynn Palace (pictured) in Macau will open in time for the Chinese New Year period, as all licences have been received. That is according to Craig Billings, chairman and chief executive of the parent firm Wynn Resorts Ltd. The latter controls Macau-based casino operator Wynn Macau Ltd. Besides the Cotai casino resort Wynn Palace, Wynn Macau Ltd also runs the Wynn Macau property in downtown Macau. “This is a significant expansion of the Chairman’s Club,” a space dedicated to the casino firm’s “highest-value customers,” Mr Billings said. “This expansion triples the size of the Chairman’s Club to nearly 100,000 square feet [9,290 sq. metres]. The space includes gaming areas, along with a range of amenities, including several boutique food and beverage outlets, entertainment areas, a cigar lounge and a bar,” the CEO said. “We honestly believe it will set a new standard for premium gaming space in Macau, i...

 fev26 Macau recorded a new all-time high in entries and exits at the borders of the SAR ten days ahead of the Lunar New Year—the world’s largest annual migration—authorities announced on Sunday. Macau’s Public Security Police (PSP) said the SAR’s borders registered around 867,000 crossings on Saturday, the highest number since daily records began. In a statement, the PSP said the largest share of movements (39.1 per cent) was attributed to tourists. Macau, the world’s casino capital, received around 174,000 visitors on Saturday, still well below the daily record of 188,000 set on 2 January. Meanwhile, Macau residents accounted for 36.7 per cent of border crossings, while migrant workers represented 21.6 per cent. According to PSP data, the territory’s largest checkpoint, the Border Gate, was also the busiest, with nearly 463,000 crossings—the highest daily figure in the past five years, since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. In neighbouring Hong Kong, the Secretary for Culture,...

fwv26 A “new phenomenon” in the Macau casino market is that “even ahead of a holiday” there is “no slow period,” said Kenneth Feng Xiaofeng, chief executive of Macau operator MGM China Holdings Ltd. He was speaking on Thursday on the call of the parent, MGM Resorts International, to discuss the fourth-quarter earnings of the whole group. On Wednesday the parent had reported MGM China’s net revenue for the three months to December 31 as having  climbed 21.4 percent  year-on-year, to just under US$1.24 billion. The Macau unit had adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, amortisation and rent (EBITDAR) of just under US$332.3 million for the reporting period, an increase of 30.5 percent from the same quarter a year earlier. Mr Feng was asked on the call about costs in the Macau market, business margins and the prospects for the upcoming Chinese New Year (CNY) break, a nine-day holiday on the Chinese mainland, that begins on February 15. The MGM China CEO stated: ...

 jan26 A single Cotai hotel project accounted for 2,724 guest rooms being built in that district last year, and three further Cotai schemes are at the “design” stage, according to an update from Macau’s Bureau of Land Services and Urban Construction. The statement didn’t identify any of the projects by name, but Cotai is predominantly a district for large-scale casino resorts. In terms of new hotel product ready-for-market in 2025, the Capella at Galaxy Macau with 36 villas and 57 “jungle-themed” suites, had a soft launch in May at Galaxy Macau, according to the resort’s operator Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. A November note from brokerage Jefferies, citing the casino group, said Phase 4 of Galaxy Macau, would “feature luxury hotels” with about “1,500 rooms”. The 2,724 Cotai rooms mentioned by the Macau government in its Monday update, involved a gross construction area of 116,743 square metres (1.26 million sq.feet). It was the only Macau hotel project built in 2025, the data in...

 fev26 Macao was elevated into one of the world's top tourism cities in terms of direct travel and tourism gross domestic product. This transformation was set in place in early 2000 with the liberalisation of the city's casino industry and the introduction of multiple casino-integrated resort complexes, many built along what would emerge as ‘The Cotai Strip’. This policy and tourism direction would propel the city into one of the richest cities globally, created by the substantial gaming revenues and tax to the government. Almost three years of COVID-19 restrictions would impact the city given its reliance on the casino and tourism industry. The renewal in 2022 of the six gaming concessions for ten years incorporated government directives on the need for the tourism industry to diversify beyond gaming and advance non-gaming tourism and leisure offerings to add to the tourism revenue mix. As the Greater Bay Area (GBA) evolves and connectivity advances between the GBA cities, a t...

 jan26 However, looking to 2H26, the analysts note ‘a more difficult path for GGR per visitor to grow’, particularly given that arrivals ‘from the more affluent regions of China have already mostly recovered back or surpassed pre-COVID levels’. This causes the analysts to opine that ‘further visitation recovery is likely to come largely from the less affluent regions with less spending power’. This could then offset upsides from higher-spending VIPs. Overall, for 2025 GGR per visitor was down by 5 percent, to MOP6,174 ($770.5), despite Macau recording its highest-ever tourism influx – nearly 40.07 million tourists, a yearly increase of 13.7 percent. VIP GGR growth was 24 percent yearly, with the segment making up 27 percent of total FY25 GGR, note the analysts. Mass GGR also increased during the year, but only by 4 percent yearly. The VIP growth was particularly accelerated in the final quarter of the year, rising by 45 percent to MOP20.3 billion ($2.53 billion). The analysts note ...