tourism

Star Entertainment has given a vote of confidence to the potential of the Gold Coast’s tourism industry, pressing ahead with plans to build a A$400 million “Tower for Tourism” despite the Covid-19 crisis.

Thailand is allowing visitors from 56 countries to boost its tourism sector, though tourists will need a health certificate to prove they are Covid free and undergo 14-days of mandatory quarantine.

The number of visitors to South Korea is set to drop to a 32-year low in 2020, due to the impact of the pandemic. The number of tourists arriving Jan-Oct. slumped 83.6 percent.

Gary Bowerman, tourism industry analyst and director of Check-in Asia, speaks with Asia Gaming Brief managing editor Sharon Singleton about prospects for tourism recovery in 2021, how governments are seeking to boost domestic travel to plug the gaps and the challenges of getting regional airlines flying again.

Macau's Secretary for Economy and Finance Lei Wai Nong said he expects more Mainland visitors during the Christmas and Chinese New Year holiday periods and said the government has a promotion scheme involving free hotel stays to encourage Chinese to stay longer and spend more.

A seminar held at the Jeju Tourism Organization building offered a debate and a rich discussion about the best means of boosting the island’s casino industry, both in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic and in the face of its long-term challenges.

Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he believes it will take several years to return to normal after Covid-19 and travel is likely to take another two years to fully recover. 

Spending by visitors to Macau in the third quarter of this year, excluding expenses on casino gambling, went down by 93.3 percent from the same period last year, according to data from the Council for the Development of Tourism.

NagaCorp has announced that it has received a fifty-year lease, with an option to renew, on a prime piece of development land sited just about 500 meters south of the outer restricted zone of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Before delving into the much-discussed path of Macau’s diversification efforts and challenges in the past 20 years, and future outlook, let me take a step back. During Covid-19 there are 3 lines of concurrent thought for a ‘strategic’ tourism recovery, that is, one that better positions the city for greater sustainable development in the medium to longer term – one aim being a diversified tourism portfolio.