Whilst restrictions have been relaxed for some Macau residents they haven’t yet been lifted for mainland Chinese visitors wanting to come into Macau. Hong Kong will keep its 14-day quarantine measures for arrivals from Macau or China until August 7.
For the year as a whole so far, Macau’s GGR has plummeted 77.4% year-on-year to US$4.25bn compared to US$18.75bn for the same timespan in 2019.
JP Morgan Securities said: “Visibility on the timing, pace and scale of the border reopening remains frustratingly low, and this frustration is shared by every operator and junket that we talk to. Notwithstanding multiple delays and disappointments, we still hope that a ‘Greater Bay travel bubble’ arrangement could be announced soon in coming weeks (if not days), but the devil will be in the details.”
UBS analyst Robyn Farley said: “Consultants believe some smaller VIP players had come back to Macau with an expectation that quarantine restrictions would ease soon, though this seems unlikely now.”
Over 60% of commercial flights in Beijing were cancelled last week due to a new outbreak of coronavirus cases. Some analysts are calling for an end to the travel restrictions.
Pedro Cortes, a gaming lawyer in Macau, said: “All countries in the world have already relaxed the measures because they realised that they would collapse quickly if they did not. Now, Macau has not yet collapsed, but how many more months can we have this glass dome?”
Tommy, Xie, an economist with Chinese Banking Corp, believes the casino sector will bounce back once restrictions are lifted.
“Once global lockdowns are lifted, the worst may be over for the tourism-related sectors in Hong Kong and Macau. Neither of the two cities will be able to see a strong recovery in its tourism activities amid concerns about a second wave of infections,” Xie said.
Source: G3 Newswire
