Macau hotels that have fallen below the "issue price", what big chess game is in the next game?

This article is from the WeChat public account "Space Secret Exploration" (ID: MESPACE007), author: Xiong Chumo.

"Since before Easter in Macau, I have stayed at the Lisboa Hotel, the first five-star hotel in Macau, and its founder, Gambler Ho Hung Sun, must not have imagined before his death that this luxury hotel he worked hard to build would one day only sell for more than 100 yuan a night, and also equipped with free breakfast. To be honest, I am embarrassed to stay, because of this price, the mainland may not be able to stay in economic brand hotels, in addition to the older facilities, there are almost no shortcomings, completely five-star service. On the morning of April 23, Zhou Xinle, general manager of a hotel traveling in Macau, told the space secret exploration.

Macau hotels plummeted in the morning and rose again in the afternoon

Mr. Chow's hotel, The Lisboa Macau, is the first five-star hotel in Macau. Space Secret Exploration on the morning of April 23 specially verified that Hotel Lisboa Macau, even during the May Day period, the standard twin room price plus tax is only 161 yuan / night, if you add 33 yuan, you can get three new benefits: 1, Le Gong Food Center double afternoon tea set 1 / day; free upgrade to the next room type 1 / day; late check-out to 13:00 1 person / day.

Opened in 1970, The Hotel Lisboa, macau's first five-star hotel, was synonymous with Macau at the time, with a total investment of more than HK$60 million at the time. Designed by renowned architect Eric Cumine, this Portuguese-style building resembles a golden birdcage, so it is known as the "bird cage", which means easy to enter and difficult to get out. Its level of luxury was unprecedented in Macau, where high-star hotels were scarce at the time. It is said that the "bird cage" supports more than 70% of the tax revenue of the Macao government, and is the most vivid "totem" of Macao's gaming industry and Macao's economy. This hotel building, which has stood in Macau's South Bay for 50 years, is the cornerstone and bridgehead of the gambling king Ho Hung-sun's gambling empire.

Such a luxurious hotel, the price is only more than 100 yuan, Mr. Zhou's "sorry" is reasonable, and it seems a little unfair to the hotel. However, it is interesting that at about 4 pm on April 23, the price of the same room type of Hotel Lisboa has been adjusted to 298 yuan, and if there is an afternoon tea package benefit, it will add 90 yuan, that is, 388 yuan / night.

In addition to the Lisboa Hotel, other hotels in Macau have also risen in price, among which the sheraton Macao Hotel, which has always been in a low price, has also risen from more than 100 yuan to 370 yuan in standard rooms. The most popular among mainland tourists, The Grand Lisboa Hotel, mgm Hotel MGM Macau and Wynn Palace Hotel, the prices have all recovered to between 800-1200 yuan, an increase of more than 30-50%.

For such a change, an OTA professional told the space secret, OTA on the afternoon according to the room reservation situation, the system price adjustment is normal, some logic and air tickets are similar, he observed that in recent days, Macau hotels seem to be like this, morning cabbage prices, afternoon normal prices, some four-star hotels plus a tax increase or even fell below 100 yuan. However, he believes that this is a good thing for the upcoming May Day Golden Week, Macau hotels have been for a long time before, because the epidemic has affected the price has been at the lowest level, like stocks, fell below the "issue price", except for some individual hotels, most of the Macau hotel prices have been strongly recovered, which is inseparable from the support of the Macao government.

Macau Government 1 billion "Hao Supplement" hotel

Macao's tourism industry, in the past two years, has always had the saying that it is "the barometer of domestic epidemic prevention and control". It's not just hotel prices that have changed, but the Macau government's efforts to attract mainland tourists in the past two years have been the most positive.

On April 20, the Macao government announced that from 00:00 a.m. on the 20th, the nucleic acid negative certification requirement held by Guangdong Province entering Macao was restored from 24 hours to 48 hours. MgTO Director Maria Fernandes said that during the just past Easter holiday, an average of about 18,000 visitors a day, and this year's Mainland 'May Day' Golden Week lasts for five days from April 30 to May 4, hoping to attract about 20,000 passengers per day, that is, about 100,000 people in five days.

In the past two years, the Macau government has been subsidizing hotels. More than 2 months ago, the tourism department subsidized 1 billion yuan to "luxury" hotels, and the Macau hotel 50% discount coupon will be launched on the Qunar platform, with a total of 107 Macau hotels participating in the event.

This subsidy policy has directly caused macau hotel prices to fall into a record low, but due to government subsidies, the loss of the hotel itself is not too large, and there are few complaints about the service. Stimulated by this welfare, many hotel prices in Macao can be described as "cabbage prices", according to Qunar's big data statistics, in 2021, the average price of five-star hotels in Macao is about 40% cheaper than the average price of five-star hotels in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, and the number of hotel bookings in Macao doubles that of 2020; the number of air tickets to Macao during the Spring Festival in 2022 will increase twice as much as the Spring Festival in 2021. After stacking coupons, some five-star hotels in Macau are more than 50% cheaper than similar hotels in the mainland.

It can be said that the Macau government subsidies on hotels are "very clever". On the one hand, in terms of the number of tourists, Macau's annual occupancy increased by 71% last year to 6.624 million; of which mainland residents accounted for about 80%, with an average stay of 1.8 nights. During this year's Spring Festival Golden Week, macao's total inbound tourist arrivals 113699, up 25.4% compared with last year's Spring Festival holiday; the average hotel occupancy rate was 63.8%, up 15.2% year-on-year; among them, the average occupancy rate of five-star hotels reached 70.3%, up 19.3%.

On the other hand, hotel occupancy is highly stimulating for other consumption. Tourists spend more than 4 times more on local dining and shopping in Macau than on accommodation. According to the tourism statistics report for the third quarter of 2021, the per capita expenditure of tourists in Macao was 2626 patacas, an increase of 94.7% over the same period in 2020. From the perspective of passenger consumption structure, shopping, accommodation and catering are the top three expenses. Among them, accommodation accounted for only 18.6% of personal consumption, and shopping and catering accounted for 76.9%.

The next game of "travel +" is underway

Since the beginning of the epidemic, although Macao has been affected by the restriction of overseas and mainland tourists, in general, it is a targeted chess game.

MgTO Senna Fernandes Fernandes said that on the eve of this year's May Day Golden Week, Macao has launched a series of promotional activities in advance to attract customers, of which the Macau drone show is expected to be held during the "May Day" period. This is a concrete attempt by the Macao government to promote "tourism + technology", and it is also an important measure launched by the SAR government to attract tourists.

Space exploration and observation found that "tourism +" is becoming the Cultural tourism strategy of the Macao government. At present, the more clear layout is "tourism + exhibition", "tourism + sports", "tourism + great health", "tourism + cultural creation", "tourism + technology" and so on. According to the "Overall Plan for the Construction of the Hengqin Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao In-depth Cooperation Zone" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") issued by the State Council last year, Article 8 of the Plan proposes to develop the cultural, tourism, exhibition and trade industry. High-level construction of Hengqin International Leisure Tourism Island, support the construction of Macao World Tourism and Leisure Center, and vigorously develop tourism industries such as leisure and vacation, conference and exhibition, sports event tourism and other tourism industries in the cooperation zone, as well as major health industries such as leisure and health care, rehabilitation and medical treatment. Strengthen the development and utilization of tourism resources on surrounding islands, and promote the free travel of yachts in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.

Especially in the "Tourism + Convention and Exhibition", the "Plan" also specifically proposes to support Guangdong and Macao to study and hold an international high-quality consumer expo and the World Bay Area Forum to create an exhibition platform with international influence. Recently, mgTO has also worked closely with the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (CIITPA) to arrange for participants to experience the culture of East and West in the streets and alleys of Macao when visitors attend meetings in Macao or Hengqin. On December 9 last year, the annual Ctrip Global Partner Summit was held in Macau. As an annual blockbuster conference that the whole industry is concerned about, the space secret exploration was also invited to attend, of which the Macao Tourism Office also actively participated, and specially arranged journalists from all over the world to visit Macao's well-known attractions, which was very impressive.

Taking "tourism + technology" as an example, the Macao Tourism Office held a Macau drone show at the end of last year, which was sought after by foreign tourists and Macao citizens. This year's drone performance was held during the "May Day" Golden Week, and 2 performances were staged on the evenings of May 1, 2, 7 and 8, and the number of drones increased from 300 to 880 last year, showing more three-dimensional patterns.

4 enlightenments for the mainland wine tourism industry

The fundamental reason why Macau's tourism industry has done so many "moves" is because of the impact of the epidemic and "de-gaming". In recent years, tourists are not optimistic, the May Day holiday 5 days, Macao's tourist target is 100,000 people, and before the epidemic, Macao tourists can reach 30 million people per year. In 2021, there were 7.7059 million inbound visitors from Macao, an increase of 30.7% over 2020, but it was still more than 80% lower than in 2019 before the epidemic. Since the beginning of this year, Macao's tourism situation has been relatively severe, affected by the epidemic in Guangdong, Fujian, Shanghai and other major source areas and surrounding areas, and the number of Macao tourists has dropped sharply in March. By the end of the Qingming holiday, the average daily passenger traffic had fallen from 23,000 in February to 11,000, a contraction of nearly 50%. If the "May Day" holiday is missed again, Macao's tourism industry will also face the crisis of "losing". However, a series of measures taken by the Macao government have begun to have a positive impact on Macao's tourism industry, which also has reference value for the mainland wine tourism industry.

First, refuse to "lie flat".

This is very impressive, at the Ctrip conference at the end of last year, the space secretary editor who attended the meeting told me that a Ctrip conference, the interaction between the Macao tourism department was very close, and they almost "penetrated" into the corners of the Ctrip conference, with only one purpose, that is, to promote Macao's tourism resources.

Since the beginning of this year, in addition to officials of the tourism department, all kinds of interviews "solicitation", even the Investment Promotion Bureau, various chambers of commerce, are actively taking action, various ways, posture has always maintained a sprint state.

An official of the Macao Tourism Office said in an interview with the space secret that although Macao's tourism industry has been severely affected by the epidemic and other factors in the past two years, they have also experienced many such difficulties. For example, Macau is small, in the past tourists rarely stayed overnight in Macau, a few years ago, the average stay of guests was only 0.7 nights, and after various efforts, this data has now increased to 1.8. He said that difficulties are temporary, and that we cannot complain in the face of difficulties, we must find a way, and only the losers will lie flat.

Second, seek "countermeasures".

Refuse to lie flat, relying on passion alone is useless, but also rely on countermeasures. Since last year, Macao has continuously launched a series of tourism activities, such as "Art Tour Spring", "Tidal Play on Land and Sea", "Gourmet 666", "Summer Fun", "Invitation to Golden Autumn", "City-wide Jump", "Shining Winter" and other theme activities. This hotel "Hao Supplement" is an upgrade based on the launch of the "Macao Food and Accommodation Tour" project in April last year, when in order to promote local tourism, each Macao resident was provided with a maximum of 280 yuan in local travel expenses and 200 yuan in hotel experience subsidies. Now more preferential treatment is being given to mainland tourists.

Since last year, we have taken the initiative to hold "Macao Week" activities in Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Nanjing and other places in the mainland, and the Macao Week activities have entered every mainland city, and have prepared a wealth of tourism offers with a total value of more than 100 million yuan, covering air tickets, hotel accommodation, catering and tourism products. It can be said that in the past two years, Macao's tourism activities have been planned almost every month and week, and there are activities every week, and the decision behind this is not to casually make a tourism decision, or simply issue a round of tourism consumption coupons, which must be scientifically planned and accurately operated.

Third, take the initiative to "transform".

"Transformation" is to actively give up the "glory" of the past. This is actually quite difficult for Macao, in the past, Macau was a gaming tourism industry, but the "de-gaming", the most serious impact is the hotel industry.

There are 33 five-star hotels and 15 four-star hotels in Macau, including many internationally renowned hotel brands such as The Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Wynn and St. Regis, as well as 50 or 60 hotels below four-star hotels. In the earliest stages, it relied on the gambling industry. Out of the novelty of the gaming industry, a large number of group customers flocked to it, and 10 years ago, due to the excellent exchange rate and convenient travel, it became the world of shopping and parent-child travel. In the past two years, due to the closure of group visas and the inconvenience of children leaving the country, Macao has ushered in more relatively free single customers.

With the change of customer base, Macao's hotel industry is also actively changing, conforming to the times, conforming to the policy of "de-gaming", roughly quantifying, enhancing the artistic atmosphere, and actively embracing the needs of tourists. Today's Macau hotels no longer focus on shopping and family entertainment, but also emphasize the golden trenches of the gaming period. Culture and art have become the new theme of Macau hotels. In recent years, the newly opened hotels designed by the late fashion legend The Karl Lagerfeld and Asia's first Versazzo Versace Hotel have taken the route of fashion and art in order to attract younger visitors.

So, changing your own fixed thinking is not as simple as you think, but Macau has done it. Compared with the traditional hotel industry and scenic spots in the mainland, the transformation in the past two years seems to be less successful, what is the reason? It is worth reflecting on and improving.

Fourth, enlarge the "market".

A series of "tourism +" is the performance of enlarging the "market". At this point, Macao is also actively seeking changes, such as integrating into the Greater Bay Area and holding hands with Hengqin.

Under the background of the acceleration of "Qin-Macao integration", Macao has built an integrated market with the help of the Hengqin Guangdong-Macao In-depth Cooperation Zone, planned and designed a number of tourism products and routes linked by the Qin-Macao region, and promoted the in-depth cooperation between Guangdong-Macao cultural tourism. Hengqin was originally just a desert island used by Zhuhai people to catch oysters, sparsely populated, and now it has gradually become the "back garden of Macau". In the past two years, the total added value of the financial industry, exhibition industry, cultural industry and traditional Chinese medicine industry around "tourism +" has grown rapidly under the large market. Taking the convention and exhibition industry as an example, the total added value of the convention and exhibition industry in 2019 increased by 1.1 times compared with 2015, and Macao held 1536 convention and exhibition activities in 2019. Although the epidemic has had an impact in the past two years, there has been no significant decline in various exhibitions.

In summary, although the price of hotels in Macao is still fluctuating, it is not only behind the market behavior, we can understand it as a kind of "medicine primer" for Macao to save its own tourism industry. This is the "big red packet" distributed by Macao to tourists, and it is also a "think tank" worth learning from the mainland tourism market, all efforts are aimed at quickly reviving the tourism industry. It is believed that with the full efforts of all people, the mainland's tourism industry can recover steadily, and Macao can become a world tourism and leisure center at an early date.