{"id":25975,"date":"2022-01-04T08:13:08","date_gmt":"2022-01-04T11:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=25975"},"modified":"2026-04-23T12:35:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:35:02","slug":"hong-kong-china-travel-bubble-delayed-due-to-omicron-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/hong-kong-china-travel-bubble-delayed-due-to-omicron-cases","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong-China travel bubble delayed due to Omicron cases"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, Hong Kong Chief Executive, said the long-awaited travel bubble with mainland China will have to wait due to the outbreak of Omicron cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Hong Kong.- The Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor<\/strong>, said that an outbreak of Omicron variant Covid-19 cases in Hong Kong may hinder the city\u2019s chances of reaching a quarantine-free travel arrangement with mainland China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities in China had previously announced the country was going to\u00a0open its borders for travellers from Hong Kong<\/a>\u00a0from December 19 while\u00a0Elsie Ao Ieong U<\/a>, Macau\u2019s secretary for social affairs and culture, had said the travel bubble was going to apply only for those who had been fully vaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reopening of the border between Hong Kong and Macau was highly expected <\/strong>as Hong Kong has historically accounted for 15 per cent to 20 per cent of Macau\u2019s total gaming revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mainland China continues to be the only country to have a largely quarantine-free travel bubble<\/a> with Macau<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor pointed out that as of Monday, Hong Kong had recorded 102 cases related to the Omicron-variant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among them,\u00a097 cases were classified as “imported”<\/strong> and the other five cases were classified as “epidemiologically related” to imported cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macau’s GGR for January could be down 9%<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Analysts at Bernstein Research predicted Macau’s GGR for the current month could be down 71 per cent <\/strong>from its pre-pandemic levels and 9 per cent lower than December<\/a> due to travel restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The figure was up 1.8 per cent month-on-month in December, from MOP6.75bn (US$844m) to MOP$7.96bn (US$991.4m). It became the sixth-best of the year <\/strong>while October saw the lowest monthly GGR of 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, Hong Kong Chief Executive, said the long-awaited travel bubble with mainland China will have to wait due to the outbreak of Omicron cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":24979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The indefinite postponement of the Hong Kong-mainland China travel bubble, attributed to a surge in Omicron cases, is poised to significantly depress Macau's gaming revenue. With Hong Kong historically contributing 15-20% of Macau's Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR), analysts project a 9% month-on-month GGR decline for January, positioning it 71% below pre-pandemic levels, underscoring persistent market volatility.","focusai_entities":"Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, Elsie Ao Ieong U, Bernstein Research","focusai_location":"Hong Kong, China, Macau","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.7), operator_casino (1.0), marketing_crm (0.7), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Macau GGR Impact?","query":"What is the projected GGR impact on Macau's integrated resorts if the Hong Kong travel bubble remains suspended through Q1 2022, and how does this affect their liquidity and debt covenants?"},{"label":"Operator Strategy Shift?","query":"How are Macau gaming concessionaires adjusting their operational and marketing strategies to mitigate the prolonged absence of Hong Kong VIP and mass-market segments, particularly concerning diversification of player source markets?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,23876],"tags":[23906],"class_list":["post-25975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-social-news","tag-macau-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25975"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25997,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25975\/revisions\/25997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}