Originally Posted by
tylorcl
I am wondering how comes there are so many high-end hotels in construction. Will there be a increasing number of people visiting Macau in the future?
There is a property bubble throughout China and Macau is not spared.
The two major industry in Macau is Gambling and the Sex industry. Yep. Chinese love to gamble.
There is also a gang related shadow industry in Macau that also keeps the economy afloat unofficially.
Chinese banks have been pumping money into the China's economy as a whole just to keep the GDP increase in a stabling 10%+ each year no matter what happens to economies outside of China.
Macau is no Vegas. It has Vegas style hotels like Venitian, but there is no Vegas-Style pricings. The fancy hotels in Macau like the Venitian charges $US 220/night on the cheapest on-sale lowest possible rate. That is way beyond the "weekend getaway" rate for average Hong Kong people. Forget about the middle or even middle-upper class household in China.
Those $US 220/night prices are more like "once every 2 years Vacation" rates. If an average household in Hong Kong save up for such a vacation, it would be more normal to go to the real Vegas and pay $199 for the real Venetian (or just the similarly good but lot cheaper Treasure Island types). They will still be ahead.
Just to give you an idea... The Asian Development Bank in 2005 give Hong Kong a median household income of $US 31000 /year (husband & wife working and living at family home). That's when times were good - before US's Great Recession or the Europe National debt problem. China - even in the relative richer areas close to Hong Kong's borders - earn nowhere near what Hong Kong people earn...
The land/property values in the country is just out of control and we just saw how these out of control property bubbles look like after they pop. Look at those poorer (but still relatively rich) Americans.
