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The Chinese National Day holiday period and the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau (HKZM) Bridge spurred October growth in the tally of inbound visitors to Macau. The city’s Statistics and Census Service claimed so in a Friday announcement. October visitor arrivals totalled over 3.15 million, up by 9.2 percent year-on-year.
That figure represented a 23.2 percent sequential increase on the September tally, which had stood at over 2.56 million, according to the official data.
Since its opening on October 24 - to the end of October – inbound visitor arrivals to Macau via the HKZM Bridge totalled 71,640, according to the census service. The statistics did not include a breakdown of visitor arrivals by nationality.
“Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that in view of the National Day holiday and the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge,” the aggregate monthly number of visitor arrivals to Macau “surged by 23.2 percent month-to-month,” the statistics bureau said in a press release.
The document did not clarify how the bureau determined that the new bridge was providing incrementally more visitors to Macau, rather than possibly providing an alternative route for those visitors already planning to come.
In October as a whole, the number of visitors from mainland China to the coastal casino hub expanded by 12.1 percent year-on-year to approximately 2.31 million. The tally of visitors under the Individual Visit Scheme – mainland China’s exit permit system for outbound tourists travelling independently rather than in tour groups – was up 15.2 percent year-on-year in October, to approximately 1.11 million.
Macau welcomed “more than 890,000” visitors during the National Day holiday – a period also known as the October 1 Golden Week – according to Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) data. The tally – more than 80 percent of it stemming from visits by mainland Chinese – represented a year-on-year increase by 7.2 percent.
China’s State Council declared October 1 to October 7 as this year’s National Day holiday period.
In October as a whole, several of Macau’s other major feeder markets in Asia saw year-on-year decreases in visitor numbers. They were Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, India, Malaysia and Singapore. The exception was Hong Kong, where the number of visitors to Macau in the month grew by 9.3 percent year-on-year to 509,369.
Macau’s visitor arrivals in the ten months to October 31 increased by 8.4 percent from the prior-year period to 28.97 million. Mainland Chinese accounted for 70.9 percent of the aggregate number of visitors in the first ten months this year – or 20.53 million visitors, up by 13.1 percent year-on-year.
Investment analysts have said that headline visitor numbers are not directly correlated to overall gaming demand, as gross gaming revenue (GGR) in the Macau market has been typically skewed to high-end play.
Official data show that Macau’s monthly casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) rose by 2.6 percent year-on-year in October, to nearly MOP27.33 billion (US$3.38 billion). It was also the highest monthly tally since October 2014, when casino GGR in the city stood at MOP28.03 billion.
The number of overnight and same-day visitors to Macau in October rose by 5.4 percent and 13.2 percent year-on-year respectively, to nearly 1.55 million and 1.60 million. The average length of stay of visitors in that month held steady year-on-year at 1.2 days.
Vietnam’s authorities have reportedly approved the inclusion of a casino in a resort on the island of Phu Quoc, local media reported. Significantly, the project has been allowed to join a three-year trial scheme permitting Vietnamese into selected casinos, reports added.
Online media VnExpress reported on Thursday that the People’s Committee of Kien Giang Province – where Phu Quoc is located – had announced that the country’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc had approved in principle the inclusion of a casino in the resort. It added the overall investment in the project – including the casino portion – was now set at VND50 trillion (US$2.14 billion).
It was unclear from the media reports as to when the casino portion would open to public. The overall resort – to also include hotels, shops and conference facilities – is to be completed by 2021.
The Phu Quoc casino is reportedly promoted by Phu Quoc Tourism Development and Investment JSC. The latter is controlled by Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup, which owns 50 percent of the company.
The government lifted a ban on Vietnamese gambling in casinos in March 2017, following a decree in January 2017 allowing a trial project for gambling by economically-qualified locals at certain venues. But the market had still been awaiting news of how that policy would be applied in practice.
Customers must be older than 21 and have a monthly income of at least VND10 million. Only casino resorts with a total capital investment of at least US$2 billion – including gaming and non-gaming facilities – are eligible to welcome Vietnamese to gamble.
In November 2017, Augustine Ha Ton Vinh told GGRAsia the Vietnamese government was likely to open two casinos to local customers. Mr Ha, an academic who has advised the government on liberalising Vietnam’s gaming industry, said a resort in Northern Vietnam at Van Don and a second one on Phu Quoc Island would be among the first to admit locals.
A self-branded hotel named “Shinhwa Resort” at the Jeju Shinhwa World casino complex on the South Korean holiday island of Jeju, is likely to be ready next year rather than this year, the entire site’s promoter Landing International Development Ltd has confirmed to GGRAsia.
The new hotel facility still needs to get local-government permits confirming it can be occupied, a representative of the firm told us. The person declined to be identified by name.
The previously-publicised opening schedule for the Shinhwa Resort hotel was within the current quarter. The new hotel is part of Hong Kong-listed Landing International’s plan to launch in stages non-gaming elements at its Jeju resort.
“We have obtained the temporary occupation permit for one building of the Shinhwa Resort hotel. It is expected that permits for the remaining two buildings of Shinhwa Resort hotel will be issued in the first half of 2019,” the Landing International source told us.
Issuance of occupation permits would happen “after the Jeju government completes re-examination of the environmental impact of major development projects in Jeju,” said the person. “We will wait until all the three buildings [of Shinhwa Resort hotel] get permits, and then open in one go,” the representative added.
Shinhwa Resort hotel would target family visitors, and will have 533 rooms, the firm’s representative also noted to us. The hotel would provide “easy access” to the “Shinhwa Water Park” and a theme park at the resort complex. Shinhwa Water Park is an outdoor entertainment area launched in early August this year.
The guest room inventory of the entire Jeju Shinhwa World complex will total over “2,000” units once Shinhwa Resort comes into operation, according to Landing International’s interim report 2018 filed in September. By 2020, the group aims to open a Four Seasons Resort and Spa, with about 200 guest rooms, and a theme park called Lionsgate Movie World.
Businessman Jay Chun, head of the main promoter of the MGS Entertainment Show, a three-day Macau event that features a casino industry trade exhibition and conference, told GGRAsia he was “satisfied” with the 2018 edition.
Several casino sector exhibitors – that asked not to be identified – had expressed to GGRAsia concerns about a lack of foot traffic and more importantly a dearth of qualified buyers at this year’s event, which concluded on November 15.
Mr Chun told GGRAsia “no complaints” had been received by the organisers. “We did see management buyers that were from South Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia,” he told us.
The businessman is chairman of the trade show’s primary promoter, the Macau Gaming Equipment Manufacturers Association (MGEMA). He is also the chairman of Hong Kong-listed gaming equipment and casino services firm Paradise Entertainment Ltd, which makes and sells casino equipment under the LT Game brand and is a major exhibitor at the MGS event.
This year, the trade show had seen a total of 16,800 “entries and exits”, compared to approximately 15,270 “entries and exits” last year, said a reply sent by the main organiser. Its preliminary statistics did not include an estimate of unique visitors.
The 2018 edition covered 14,000 square metres (150,700 sq feet) of exhibition space, and attracted 163 exhibitors, said the hosts. That was almost at par with the exhibitor tally for last year. A total of 40 out of the 163 exhibitors at the 2018 event were gaming equipment suppliers or providers of gaming-related technology and services; the tally of this type of exhibitors stood at 35 in last year’s edition, the trade show organiser noted to GGRAsia.
The annual MGS event, first held in 2013, was originally known as the “Macao Gaming Show” and was initially presented as a localised alternative to Global Gaming Expo Asia, a Macau trade event usually held in May by Reed Exhibitions and the American Gaming Association, a casino industry trade body.
Mr Chun told GGRAsia he was satisfied with the overall 2018 offering, “especially the two summits” at the event. That referred to two conference tracks: one focusing on Asia’s land-based gaming industry; the other on digital entertainment and blockchain technology.
The trade show organiser told us an aggregate of 2,502 “attendees” was recorded for the two summits at this year’s MGS Entertainment Show.
A previous edition of MGS had featured online gaming companies on the trade show floor but such exhibitors were absent this year.
“For our show, we did not feature online [gaming] suppliers, but only the land-based ones… basically most of the Macau-licensed [gaming equipment] supplier firms have taken part in our show,” Mr Chun noted to us.
He said there would be a further expansion of non-gaming content in upcoming editions of MGS.
“Our new direction is that the show can become a one-stop shopping platform for integrated resorts, especially those that are looking for hotel supplies,” Mr Chun told GGRAsia.
For this year’s edition of MGS, the trade show had adopted a new name in Chinese, that translates as the “2018 Macau Leisure Technology Show”.
In 2018 – and for the first time – the event was jointly organised with several of China’s state-owned enterprises, namely Nam Kwong Culture and Creativity Industry Co Ltd, and China National Machinery Industry International Co Ltd. Mr Chun had noted in a September press briefing that the partnership with the state-owned companies would be for three years.