Good news for Singapore’s Covid-battered casinos could be on the way under plans the city-state has announced for negotiating travel bubbles with so-called “safe nations” in the Asia-Pacific region.
Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung said the government wants to welcome back international leisure travelers by reopening select air routes along the lines of a recent agreement concluded with Japan for restoring business travel between the two countries.
He specifically mentioned Australia, Vietnam, New Zealand and Brunei and said, “We hope to commence discussions with Hong Kong and other partners soon.”
It couldn’t come too soon for the city-state’s struggling casinos, Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa, which rely heavily on gamblers from abroad.
Marina Bay Sands, owned by U.S.-based Las Vegas Sands, recorded an EBITDA loss of US$113 million in the second quarter on a year-on-year decline in gaming revenue of 96.7 percent. Sentosa, owned by a Singapore subsidiary of Malaysia’s Genting Group conglomerate, reported a loss of $119.1 million over the same period on a 99 percent decline in gaming revenue.
In a related development, the government is pursuing plans to allow gambling “cruises to nowhere” on a limited basis and has designated a Genting-owned line as one of the operators.
The Singapore Tourism Board has granted a commission to a maritime advisory company, DNV GL Singapore, to create a compliance and certification program to ensure those lines that are approved are operating with specified Covid-19 safety measure in place, among them a 50 percent limit on capacity.
The Genting line, Dream Cruises, has been running vessels out of Taiwan since July, but has been locked down in Singapore, where two of its ships are serving as temporary housing for foreign workers recovering from the virus.
All port calls in and out of the city-state were suspended in March.
