In this Jan 22, 2020 file photo, visitors wear face masks as they walk outside the Venetian casino hotel resort in Macao. (ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP)
The Chinese mainland will resume issuing tourist visas for visitors to the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), paving the way for the mass return of mainland punters to the world’s largest gaming hub after months of losses.
The resumption of visas, coming less than a month after the removal of a two-week quarantine requirement for visitors, effectively revives the gambling enclave whose revenue had been five times larger than the Las Vegas Strip before the pandemic
Zhuhai city in neighboring Guangdong province will begin issuing tourist visas for mainland residents to travel to Macao again on Aug 12, said Macao SAR Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Ao Ieong U on Monday in a press briefing. The move reverses a ban implemented in late January to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
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The resumption of visas, coming less than a month after the removal of a two-week quarantine requirement for visitors, effectively revives the gambling enclave whose revenue had been five times larger than the Las Vegas Strip before the pandemic, driven largely by mainland demand.
Without mainland visitors, Macao’s gaming revenue plunged by over 90 percent for four consecutive months and operators have been losing US$15 million daily in expenses, according to a Morgan Stanley estimate. Rumors of the visa resumption had lifted a Bloomberg gauge of Macao stocks as much as 3.9 percent on Monday.
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Macao’s gross domestic product, heavily reliant on the tourism and gaming industry, shrank 49 percent in the first quarter of this year. Even though casino operators reopened after an unprecedented 15-day shutdown in February, travel curbs meant tourists and high rollers couldn’t get there.
The coronavirus outbreak has been largely contained in the Macao SAR as well as in the mainland, although the neighboring Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is seeing a resurgence. Macao hasn’t found any new coronavirus cases since the end of June.
