Russia’s Primorye casino zone saw a 24 percent drop in attendance in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But Igor Trofimov, executive director of the Primorsky Krai Development Corp., told a Vladivostok news agency that the situation in the zone is not critical and will improve.
In 2020, reports Asia Gaming Brief, the number of Russian tourists to Primorye decreased 14.8 percent, and visits by foreign tourist fell 56 percent. At the same time, the number of unique visitors to the zone reached almost 219,000 versus 289,000 in 2019.
Summit Ascent Holdings, which operates the Tigre de Cristal casino in Primorye, said local support has been strong in the absence of foreign travel. Analysts said the resort is benefiting from “staycations,” and Citic Securities expects that the zone will also see more tourist arrivals from Japan and Korea in the second half of this year. The resort was closed for three months due to the pandemic and reopened on July 15, 2020.
Under a longstanding plan, eight more resort complexes were scheduled to be complete by 2022, and join the two in operation, Tigre de Cristal, which opened in 2015, and Shambala, which opened last year. Officials say the timetable will likely be delayed due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic. Cambodian gaming operator NagaCorp, for one, has said it’s faced difficulties when trying to bring in foreign construction workers.
But Trofimov was optimistic about the ultimate success of the gaming zone, located near the Black Sea. “There are no reasons for adjusting plans for the development of the gambling zone, because the process of investment and construction of these facilities is a very long-term process. We are confident that when the facilities are built, the situation with the pandemic will change, and investors also take into account possible risks, ” he said.
