Tropical Storm Pakhar delays Macau recovery
Macau’s recovery from Typhoon Hato was scuppered by the arrival of Tropical Storm Pakhar on Sunday evening.
The Tropical Storm brought further disruption to the area’s casino industry and the city’s attempts to clean up from the recent typhoon. Currently China has deployed 1,000 members of its liberation Army in order to help with the clean up. They will now have to stay a little longer as numerous streets and buildings refill with debris thanks to Pakhar.
The gaming industry will be take another setback in Macau as hundreds of more flights were delayed or cancelled in and out of the region causing more financial and administrative strains on the already damaged casinos. Tropical storm Pakhar perpetuated problems caused by Hato as a chance of a quick recovery was blown away.
Hato hit at one of the busiest times of the year and resulted in an estimated loss of $216m for the casinos. Reports are also suggesting that despite some normality being restored now, there are still noticeably less people on casino floors. The arrival of Pakhar will see the losses rise even higher in a period which is usually one of Macau’s most profitable and popular for tourism.
Another potential concern arising over the typhoon is the suggestion that the only reason local agencies did not deem Hato a typhoon earlier was because of the potential impact on the gambling industry. The Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau has since gone under investigation by local authorities to help shed light on the accusations.
Regardless, Hato devastated Macau and left the local casinos in a mess, only to have a Pakhar come through and stifle most of the cleaning up which has taken place. It’s a truly frustrating time for the casino operators in Macau. They will be hoping that their new discounted offers can help repair some of the financial damage done by the two events.
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