{"id":777001025,"date":"2022-12-14T13:11:41","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T16:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777001025"},"modified":"2026-04-23T02:03:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T05:03:06","slug":"sjm-ceo-confident-foreign-visitors-to-return-to-macau-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/sjm-ceo-confident-foreign-visitors-to-return-to-macau-soon","title":{"rendered":"SJM CEO confident foreign visitors to return to Macau soon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With Covid-19 policies being eased in Macau, Ambrose So Shu Fai expects the city to bring back foreign visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Macau.- Ambrose So Shu Fai<\/strong>, 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<\/a> as the city undergoes a \u2018gradual opening up\u2019<\/a> from China\u2019s zero-Covid policy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to Radio Macau, public broadcaster TDM’s Portuguese-language radio service, the CEO said: \u201cThe Macau government is also encouraging all the concessionaires to make their best efforts to attract those visitors coming from abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a> reported net gaming revenue of HK$913m <\/strong>(US$116.3m), down 59 per cent year-on-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a>. The move will allow them to gain an exemption on a 5 per cent levy on gross gaming revenue from these areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether it would be easy for the SJM group to create such zones in its properties, Ambrose So Shu Fai replied: \u201cI think it will be \u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SJM Holdings Limited<\/a> is one of the six current casino operators in Macau that have gained new 10-year gaming concessions that will begin in January 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See also:<\/strong> Elsie Ao Ieong: Macau cannot remain closed to the world<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Covid-19 policies being eased in Macau, Ambrose So Shu Fai expects the city to bring back foreign visitors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":19388,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Macau is easing Covid-19 restrictions and actively encouraging casino concessionaires, including SJM Holdings, to attract international visitors. This strategic shift includes allowing operators to establish exclusive gaming zones for foreign gamblers, exempting them from a 5% GGR levy, a move anticipated to mitigate the negative impact of prior quarantine policies on NGR. SJM Holdings, having secured a new 10-year concession, expects this to facilitate recovery and growth.","focusai_entities":"Ambrose So Shu Fai, SJM Holdings Ltd, Radio Macau, TDM","focusai_location":"Macau, China","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.8), compliance_legal (0.7), operator_casino (1.0), marketing_crm (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"GGR Levy Exemption Impact","query":"What is the projected financial impact of the 5% GGR levy exemption on foreign-exclusive gaming zones for Macau's concessionaires, and how will this influence their investment strategies in attracting international VIPs?"},{"label":"Operationalizing Foreign Zones","query":"What specific operational and regulatory challenges do Macau's concessionaires anticipate in establishing and managing gaming zones exclusively for foreign gamblers, particularly concerning player identification and responsible gambling protocols?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16338],"tags":[23108],"class_list":["post-777001025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-east-asia-news","tag-sjm-holdings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001025","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=777001025"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777001054,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001025\/revisions\/777001054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777001025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777001025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777001025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}