Anyone that doubted Macau is having his or her moment in the sun right now and they might even get burnt with the news that two more firms are retreating from their earlier heady estimates on the enclave’s gaming industry. Both Macquarie and CLSA Asia Pacific Markets thought it about time they reduced their estimates for 2012 to 13 percent and 16 percent respectively. That’s down from Macquarie’s original figure of 15 percent and 21 percent for CSLA with the former even cutting their 2013 estimate from 10 percent to 7 percent.
Budget airline AirAsia Philippines is to start flying to both Macau and Hong Kong next month in a move that could bring more visitors from elsewhere in the region. Flights from Clark in Manila to both destinations are scheduled to crank into action from July 19 and will operate one return flight per day to the gambling industry enclave. Overseas Filipino workers report “there is a demand out of Clark,” according to AirAsia Philippines Chief Executive Marianne B. Hontiveros.
Numbers from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) suggest visitor arrivals on package tours to the enclave are far from slowing with a 28 percent increase to 695,762 for the month of April. Visitors from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea fueled much of this by, up 95.6 percent, 68.6 percent and 25.3 percent respectively. For the year so far the number hit 2,746,238 – 40.7 percent more than the same time last year. Hotel room numbers also increased by 13.6 percent to 767,679 in the month with new rooms, 20.2 percent more than a year ago, helping contribute to the rise. From January to April the amount of guests was up 13.6 percent to 2,948,365. Seems the visitors are still flocking to the gaming industry enclave after all.
