Macau, the gaming hub on China’s south coast near Hong Kong has endured some of the world’s strictest anti-virus controls for nearly three years, and a loosening of border restrictions after China rolled back its “zero-Covid” strategy in early December is widely expected to boost its tourism-driven economy. But for now, China’s worst wave of infections so far is keeping away the hoards of high rollers who usually fill its casinos. From Dec. 23-27, the city saw a daily average of only 8,300 arrivals, according to police data. That’s just 68% of November’s level. The scene improved on New Year’s Eve with 28,100 visitors entering the city that day but that’s only 66% of the level a year ago. The daily average was 108,000 in 2019, before the pandemic. Last week, China announced it would resume issuing passports for tourism, potentially setting up a flood of Chinese going abroad, but also spicing up competition for Macao.
Businesses are hoping the Lunar New Year holidays in late January will bring better luck for the territory of 672,000 people, a former Portuguese colony and the only place in China where casinos are legal.
When the coronavirus hit in 2020, the city’s gambling revenue collapsed 80% to just $7.5 billion from a year earlier. In 2021, the figure recovered to $10.8 billion, but that’s still down 75% from a peak of $45 billion in 2013. Gambling revenues last year was halved to $5.3 billion. Several hundred meters away, visitors were enjoying an unusual degree of tranquility at the Ruins of St. Paul’s, originally the 17th century Church of Mater Dei .The surge of cases in China has prompted some people to go to Macau to get shots of the MRNA-based Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is not available in the mainland, Macau’s University Hospital, which provides the service, did not reply to an emailed request for comment and its phone rang unanswered Friday but there has been no sign of a rush of customers, especially not in the casinos. Gambling floors at two major casinos were half-empty Wednesday, with just a few small groups of Chinese visitors sitting around slot machines and bored due to lack of activity.
