Macau loses Thai visits

Fewer Thais visited Macau's glitz casinos last year, according to statistics released by the Macau Government Tourist Office, which recorded a visitor decline of 13% from the Thai market.Officials blamed the decline on competition from other destinations such as Korea and Hong Kong, particularly in the highly competitive events or MICE sectors. However, Singapore is the more likely culprit. It established two Las Vegas style casinos in 2009 and early 2010 linked to family-style theme parks that were a big hit with Thais.

But MGTO’s marketing manager in Thailand, Jarunee Tantinuku, remains confident that Macau’s casinos can win back business in 2011, although the destination lacks airline seat capacity and competitive air fares on the scale Singapore offers.Over the first 10 months of 2010, the Thailand market was ninth in a ranking of 10 top source markets, It delivered 172,772 visits down 13.4%.The top source markets were China with 10,931,869 visits up 22.2%; Hong Kong 6,237,149 up 11%; Taiwan 1,090,555 up 2.6%; Japan 341,558; up 11.4% and Korea 271,161 up 62.4%.

Macau’s tourism depends almost entirely on China, Taiwan and Hong Kong and in all three Chinese markets, gambling was the draw card as opposed to business or cultural related travel.With just 10% of the arrivals coming from markets outside of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, Thailand is viewed as an important source and could grow by 5 to 10% a year.However, that was before Singapore embraced casinos that added a new layer to an already formidble array of  attractions.

Due to an oversupply of airline seats between Bangkok and Singapore and stiff competition from low-cost airlines, Singapore’s vacation costs will remain lower than for Macau during 2011, attracting casual gamblers and company incentive groups.About 85% of all visitors to Macau travel there to gamble with the events market attracting around 15%. Macau has 20,000 rooms on the market now and this is likely to increase by another 10% over the next two years.

Source=ttrweekly