SJM CEO confident foreign visitors to return to Macau soon

With Covid-19 policies being eased in Macau, Ambrose So Shu Fai expects the city to bring back foreign visitors.

Macau.- Ambrose So Shu Fai, vice-chairman and chief executive of Macau casino operator SJM Holdings Ltd, said the city will be able to attract more international visitors now that Covid-19 policies have been relaxed. Earlier this week, Macau lifted remaining Covid-19 measures as the city undergoes a ‘gradual opening up’ from China’s zero-Covid policy. 

Speaking to Radio Macau, public broadcaster TDM’s Portuguese-language radio service, the CEO said: “The Macau government is also encouraging all the concessionaires to make their best efforts to attract those visitors coming from abroad.”

He said that Macau’s quarantine-on-arrival policy, mainly for visitors from outside mainland China, had had a negative effect on casino revenues. For the third quarter of the year, SJM Holdings Limited reported net gaming revenue of HK$913m (US$116.3m), down 59 per cent year-on-year.

In a move aimed to attract customers from jurisdictions other than mainland China, authorities have announced that casino operators will be allowed to build gaming zones exclusive to foreign gamblers. The move will allow them to gain an exemption on a 5 per cent levy on gross gaming revenue from these areas.

Asked whether it would be easy for the SJM group to create such zones in its properties, Ambrose So Shu Fai replied: “I think it will be ”.

SJM Holdings Limited is one of the six current casino operators in Macau that have gained new 10-year gaming concessions that will begin in January 2023.

See also: Elsie Ao Ieong: Macau cannot remain closed to the world