Angela Hanlee on Macau (Audio)

groups welcome back. Well, um, I think this is definitely a positive news for Macca casino operatus, especially for Galaxy since China and Maca results, because I believe that these tour groups appropriately probably float into quota integra di uitals first. So but the issue is that the group tours have never been the major driver for Maca casinos because they're spending per head it's not high. So I would just say that this is kind of revitalizing those currently empty

casino flows in Macau. But I won't actually expect much changes for this year, so we still keep our forecast that the gaming revenue this year may only reach of prep COVID level. But I think this is a signal that the mainland Chinese government wants to relax more. So probably this will follow with the more proverbs for individual like visas for individual visitors. Then that can be kind of bringing some upside to forecasts for the gaming revenue

of next year. Yeah, indeed, so we need the wealthy big spenders to come back to those tables to really push up revenue. There. Tell us though, just a little bit more about this initial reopening. I mean, who is going to be allowed to go on these two groups those people? I think tours are starting from Shanghai and

also some other provinces like Bangdong Province. So previously I think um Chinese people like a mainland Chinese people, when they want to go to Macau, they don't need to do any quarantine, so the issue was more about whether government authorities allow them to go or not. So at LAS now they are allowing these tours, so those people will go, and I guess most of them should be probably later traveler who has been in China like for for more than two or three years. So obviously these

provinces are kind of more of fluted than others. But still I don't believe that this will bring that much upside on this year's gaming revenue forecast. How much has the very strict policy that's been in place for nearly three years now affected Macau as an attractive hub and seeing Singapore and the Philippines benefit in terms of relocation of staff too. Yeah, so obviously other countries like a Singapore and Philippines had more friendly policies for these casino prayers,

but I think they are catering different clients. So we also heard some news about some Chinese people are actually relocating to Singapore. Then probably those people are the ones who are going to Singapore casinos. But other than that, I think it's very unlikely that mainland Chinese rich people will actually go to Singapore to gambo rather than going to Macau. And I think the issue was more that

it's very complicated to fly, so uh. As long as this kind of recovery kickscene, I believe mainland Chinese people still continue to go to Macau to gamble, but those casinos in Singapore and Philippines could benefit from booming economy in that area. We know that it is about the wealthy people at the tables that are gonna really boost revenue, but when we do see a reopening and you're seeing that with quarantine easing in Hong Kong too. How much is Macau come back just in terms of being an

attractive tourism hub to for concerts and the like. For me, I think Macau's gaming revenue has been like a million

Chinese paper has been contributing on gaming revenue Macau. So it's more about the business between mainland China and Macau, and Macau is obviously priorititizing the opening with China first, which is very much because there's many stuff in Macau are working from China, they're community from China every day, so there is no way for Maccau to open to the other world if mainland China keeps like that kind

of policy. Alright, Angela will see what happens, but mainland tour groups as soon as November to allowed back into Macau. Angela Hanley is Bloomberg Intelligence analysts on APAT gaming and hospitality research, joining us from our Hong Kong studio