Opinion | Why the world is watching Macau’s red-carpet welcome for mainland Chinese visitors

Name: Eiffel Tower and other tourist landmarks in France now require Covid-19 pass
Uploaded: 2021-07-25T07:30:18.000Z
Duration: 2 min 1 s
Description: Eiffel Tower and other tourist landmarks in France now require Covid-19 pass

Macau offers a small but significant test case of reopening, with big implications for global tourism and the normalisation of China’s discretionary spending

Reading Time:3 minutes

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Tourists visit Macau’s Senado Square on May 3 during China’s May Day holiday. Photo: Xinhua

Hyomi Jie

Published: 3:30pm, 25 Jul 2021

London is off limits to most Chinese tourists due to travel curbs, but an alternative closer to home is the new The Londoner Macao casino resort. There, they will encounter a life-size replica of Big Ben, staff dressed as Beefeaters, and a hologram of footballer David Beckham leading guests on a virtual black cab tour of London.

Macau, the world’s biggest casino hub, is pulling out all the stops to lure the dragon’s share of mainland China’s pent-up travel demand. Among the perks offered are “buy one, get one free” flights, with generous spending discounts for use in Macau dished out at travel fairs in mainland cities.

For investors, Macau offers a small but significant test case as one of the few places in Asia staging a tentative recovery in cross-border travel, with big implications for global tourism and the normalisation of China’s discretionary spending.

While Europe and the United States are moving to reopen their doors, travel restrictions and quarantines look set to stick for longer in most parts of Asia, where vaccination rates generally lag behind those in Western countries.

The reopening trade has caught on worldwide since the third quarter of last year, spurring huge gains in some travel-related and consumer discretionary stocks, especially in Europe and America.

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Eiffel Tower and other tourist landmarks in France now require Covid-19 pass

Asia has seen milder rallies, with shares in Macau casino operators, such as Galaxy Entertainment, Sands China and SJM Holdings, still lagging behind their Western peers.

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.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Macau offers a small but significant test case of reopening, with big implications for global tourism and the normalisation of China’s discretionary spending

Macau offers a small but significant test case of reopening, with big implications for global tourism and the normalisation of China’s discretionary spending