Sands China, a major casino operator in Macau, has taken a number of measures to attract more foreign players, said company chairman Wilfred Wongyingwai.
"The company was able to utilize about 1% of its hotel room inventory during the recent five-day Labor Day holiday, compared to about 70% in the first quarter," he said. ” adds.
Plan to attract foreign tourists
Applicants participating in the Macau government's tender for a new 10-year gaming concession were asked to plan and commit to investment on various issues, including attracting foreign visitors.Moreover, visitors from mainland China and Hong Kong accounted for 2019% of Macau's 39,400 million visitors in 89.6, according to the Macau government, before the Covid-19 pandemic. Macau was largely a Chinese tourist market.
As to how Sands China plans to attract additional foreign customers, Wong told local public broadcaster TDM's television service: We are organizing and expanding our office.”
“We use private jets to attract high rollers to Macau, and we have been doing that since the launch of our new concession in January.”
In comments to TDM, Wong said, "Sands China was going to do a lot of overseas promotions to market its properties in Macau." A promotional campaign will be held in Singapore in early June. ”
Partnership to attract tourists from Singapore
In March, Sands China formally partnered with Singapore's flag carrier Air Macau to offer Singaporean and regional travelers "luxury hotel packages and a range of perks". .This promotion lasts until June 3th.
In addition, Sands China's parent company, Las Vegas Sands, operates the Marina Bay Sands casino resort in Singapore.
reduce tax burden
However, according to Macau's latest gaming regulatory framework, "the city's chief executive has decided, as a matter of public interest, to maximize the tax burden on casino operators on casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) generated by foreign players." It is said that it has the authority to reduce to 5 percentage points.
In a related development, the Macau government confirmed last month that each of the city's six casino operators had introduced foreigner gaming zones.The establishment of such zones is the first step in enabling businesses to apply for tax relief.
"Sands China is looking to reduce the tax burden based on its efforts to attract foreign tourists to Macau," Wong told media on Thursday about potential tax cuts. rice field.He added that local authorities will complete a review of the company's first-quarter results for its foreign game business before deciding on potential tax cuts. ”
Hotel room availability
The president of Sands China also said, "During the recent Labor Day, about 90% of hotel rooms were available, with about 12,000 rooms available out of a total inventory of about 11,000 rooms. The group's hotels recorded a 2% booking rate for two days of the holiday period, with an average booking rate of 100-97% for the rest of the period."
In that regard, for the market as a whole, according to the Macau Government Tourism Office, "out of the total 46,000 rooms in the Macau market, about 2,000 were unavailable during the May Day holiday."
Las Vegas Sands Corp also noted its first quarter results in its financial results briefing last month: We stopped the service in the first quarter.”
Wong also acknowledged that “it will be really difficult for the overall Macau market GGR to return to pre-pandemic levels.”
“That's because the junket operations that took place in the market have dropped significantly.
According to multiple analysts, “The changing regulatory environment in Macau and mainland China, the latter historically the main source of high rollers for Macau junket operations, has led to a downturn in junket business and a number of operations. caused the end of the
On top of that, Mr Wang said: “With the junket operation gone, rolling volume is down significantly. recovering.
“In junket operations, the concessionaire also earns less, so the yield per cosplayer is better.”
Many brokerages have recently been more optimistic about the pace of profit recovery in Macau's mass gambling sector compared to 2019.
Comment