Singapore and Hong Kong will reconnect for tourist travel within a much-anticipated travel bubble that’s set to take effect May 26.
The bubble will proceed “cautiously” in the early going, Singapore’s Ministry of Transport said, with one flight per day in each direction and each flight capped at 200 passengers.
Travelers from both sides will have to provide proof of a negative Covid-19 before they can board the direct flights and those from Hong Kong must also be fully vaccinated.
Nonetheless, the news bodes well for Singapore’s two gaming resorts, Genting Singapore’s Resorts World Sentosa Las Vegas Sands’ Marina Bay Sands, which have struggled mightily throughout the pandemic without their international markets, particularly those from China.
“Not having foreign players, is very hurtful (to the business),” LVS Chairman and CEO Rob Goldstein said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call.
Brokerage Union Gaming Securities seconded that earlier this year, forecasting that the earnings outlook for the market will remain “muted” until international travel resumes.
The bubble has been the subject of negotiations dating back to November but was deferred repeatedly while Hong Kong continued to wrestle with a spread of the potentially deadly virus.
The city of 7 million identified a total of 155 infections in the 14 days prior to the announcement of the bubble, including 37 local cases, bringing the city’s total to 11,741 active cases as of April 26.
Singapore had 314 active cases, according to the city-state’s Ministry of Health.
“I am happy that Hong Kong got the Covid-19 situation under control,” said Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung. “Both sides will need to stay very vigilant in the next one month so that we can launch the first flights smoothly.”
