In the light of the recently announced increase generated by the annual Macau gambling revenue, it also became clear that the Macau International Airport’s (MIA) passenger traffic hit a record high last week at the very peak of the holiday season.
Reportedly, the MIA passenger traffic on this Christmas Eve reached a new record high, with more than 7 million passengers recorded. As it became clear, there was a steady growth registered in the passenger volume and daily movement over 2017. According to data revealed, there was a 2% rise in the aircraft movements, with the latter increasing to over 58,000 in comparison to the ones registered a year earlier. The number of passengers which were through also increased, with the overall yearly passenger throughput amounting to over 7.1 million passengers, with this number representing a 8% increase in comparison to the previous year.
Macau Casino Revenue Makes a Big Comeback in 2017
The increased MIA passenger traffic came at a moment when casinos in the largest gambling hub on a global scale were reported to have made a massive comeback in terms of their revenue. At the beginning of the year, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, which is the city’s regulatory authority, revealed that the accumulated gross gaming revenue (GGR) of local casinos increased by 19.1% in comparison to the one generated in 2016.
According to data revealed by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, the accumulated gross gaming revenue of the city amounted to a total of MOP265.74 billion in 2017. A year earlier, the total GGR generated by Macau casinos totalled MOP23.21 billion.
What is more impressive, is the fact that the increase was actually the first yearly gaming revenue growth generated there in the last three-year period. Fir three consecutive years, the local casino revenue was hit by a massive decline, with the GGR falling by 2.6% year-on-year in 2014; declining by 34.3% in 2015; and generating a 3.3% decrease in 2016.
Yesterday, the Macau regulatory authority revealed that the city’s GGR for the last month of 2017 increased by 14.6% year-on-year, almost reaching MOP22.70 billion. This was the 17th straight month of gaming revenue increase in the market on a year-on-year basis. The big, almost 20% increase of the total yearly GGR of the city’s casinos came to end the continuous decline in the annual gaming revenue after the Chinese Government imposed its anti-corruption measures at the beginning of 2014 under President Xi Jinping.
The measures led to losses for Macau, which is a special administrative region in China and is known as one of the largest casino and gambling hubs on a global scale. Now, the local gambling industry hopes that the market increase will accelerate its pace thanks to the upcoming Januarty launch of MGM Cotai, which would be the second Macau property of MGM Resorts there. The gambling venue was intended to open over the fourth quarter of 2017, but its official launch was re-scheduled for January 29th due to the damages inflicted during Typhoon Hato.
