Local patrons have become increasingly important to Singapore’s two integrated resorts, and those patrons have been loyal, as fourth-quarter results show. Locals in this case includes a large expatriate community that prefers slots over table games.
According to AGP Nippon, the welcome trend began in the third quarter and were confirmed in the fourth. Las Vegas Sands’ Marina Bay Sands (MBS) saw operating profit increase 106 percent to US$144 million from the prior quarter.
“We gather that Genting Singapore’s Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) will exhibit similar trends when it releases its 4Q20 results on 9 Feb 2021,” Maybank Kim Eng analyst Samuel Yin Shao Yang said in a note, who’s keeping his call for a “buy” on Genting stock. Yin said MBS was helped by the fact it has been allowed to increase operating capacity from 25 percent to 50 percent from mid-September.
“We also gather that MBS casino was also open to all guests from 9 Oct. 2020. It was previously open only to Sands Rewards members,” he said.
Las Vegas Sands’ fourth-quarter 2020 earnings were ahead of forecasts largely due to its performance in Singapore, reported Asia Gaming Brief. Bernstein Research said the slot business is almost back to pre-pandemic levels, and amenities including retail and food and beverage are also strong. Without international travel, however, further growth might be hard.
Singapore has travel-bubble agreements with China, Brunei, Vietnam, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. It also has a one-way agreement with Taiwan that enables short-term visitors from countries with sufficiently low viral transmission levels to enter Singapore under strict health protocols. The air-travel bubble with Hong Kong has been postponed due to a spike in Covid-19 cases there.
According to GGRAsia, Singapore’s visitor arrivals for 2020 declined by 85.7 percent year-on-year to 2.74 million, and most travelers passed through did so in January and February, before the Covid-19 pandemic took hold. For 2021, the outlook for tourism is likely to “remain weak,” said Singapore Tourism Board.
In encouraging news, for the full month of December, Singapore had 24,010 visitors, the highest monthly tally since March 2020. “Singapore Tourism Board remains confident in Singapore’s position as one of the world’s safest and most attractive leisure and business destinations, and in the long-term prospects of Singapore’s tourism sector,” CEO Keith Tan said in a February 1 news release.
The statement said it will “take time” for leisure travel and “traveler confidence” to return, even as vaccines against Covid-19 become widespread.
