Chinese high rollers are traditionally Asia’s most coveted VIP gambling demographic. But for now, travelers from Korea are shoring up the segment at Philippine casino resorts.
Inside Asian Gaming cited a note from Maybank Securities analyst Miguel Sevidal, who wrote that Koreans are driving recovery of the premium segments, with tourist arrivals from the country at 70 percent of pre-pandemic levels and growing by the month. There are now about 71 weekly flights from Incheon, South Korea, to Manila, Sevidal added.
“These trends suggest that the Korea VIP base should remain upbeat,” he wrote, in a note about first-quarter financial results for Bloomberry Resorts and its market-leading Solaire Resort & Casino in Manila’s Entertainment City. “Our Maybank IBG Economics team notes that Koreans show the strongest outbound travel recovery among East Asian markets.”
He also wrote that he is “surprised on the upside” driven by locally-based Chinese players plus foreign visitors from Taiwan and ASEAN countries.
Koreans comprised around 15 percent of VIP gross gaming revenues (GGR) before Covid began, IAG reported. They are now the dominant contributor to a sub-demographic (consisting of Korea, Taiwan and ASEAN nations) that contributed half of VIP GGR as of the first quarter of this year.
By contrast, Sevidal said he’s “lukewarm” on the return of those desirable Chinese gamblers, as flight capacity from China and Chinese tourist arrivals in the country are only 40 percent and 12 percent of pre-Covid levels respectively.
He added that “domestic demand [will continue to be] the main driver of growth for the Philippine gaming sector, driving mass and slots GGR growth. … This suggests that casinos’ wallet share from Filipino households has increased.”
