Rising Hotel Prices, Occupancy Soars

　　Despite soaring room prices, local hotels were busier than ever during Chinese New Year, official figures released by the Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) yesterday show.

　　During the weeklong holidays in mainland China, from January 23 to 29, the average room rate at guesthouses rose by a staggering 28.1 percent from the same period of last year to almost MOP 560.

　　The lowest increase was felt in two-start hotels, whose room rates rose just 2.8 percent to just short of MOP 960. On the other extreme, the prices at five-start hotels increased 9.1 percent to more than MOP 2,400.

　　However the average occupancy rate at three to five-star hotels actually grew by 4.6 points from the 2011 Chinese New Year to 91.9 percent. This figure even reached 94.9 percent at five-star hotels, up by 3.7 points.

　　The occupancy rate increased even though the number of available rooms rose by more than 2,600 to almost 21,700, with the opening of Cotai resort Galaxy Macau last May. There were an average of 20,200 hotel rooms rented every day, up by 19.2 percent in comparison with the previous period.

　　During the Lunar New Year period the MGTO sealed three units suspected of providing illegal accommodation and four people were accused to profiting from this business. Meanwhile the alleged operator of a illegal inn paid a fine of MOP 200,000.

　　The preliminary figures show that more than 860,600 visitors arrived in Macau between January 23 and 29, up by 6.9 percent year-on-year. As usual, most of the tourists (about 546,400) came from mainland China, up by 14.5 percent.

　　Visitors from Taiwan also increased by 15 percent. An overwhelming majority of the tourists (93.9 percent) came from Greater China, which also includes neighbouring Hong Kong.