Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | April 2010 36 Las Vegas had an average of 99,593 visitors per day in 2009 served by 148,941 rooms at year-end—the equivalent of 1.5 rooms per visitor per day. Macau had an average of 59,596 visitors per day during 2009 and 19,216 rooms at year-end—an average of 0.3 rooms per visitor. More than half of Macau’s visitors during 2009, though, were day- trippers—11.35 million of the 21.75 million total arrivals for the year, according to DSEC, the city’s statistics and census service. For the first time in 2008, total expenditure of visitors (TEV) on hotel accommodation in Singapore exceeded their spending on shopping. According to the Singapore Tourism Board, that was principally a function of high room rates. Preferred guests If Singapore can’t easily increase its room inventory (in the manner of Las Vegas) because of a shortage of space and market competition from other higher yield real estate, it had better move its visitor profile upmarket in order to achieve a better ‘yield’ per hotel visitor. Part of the rationale of the Singapore government in introducing casino gaming appears precisely to have been to encourage elasticity in consumer demand for Singapore hotel rooms in the face of price increases. In other words, the thinking is that MICE bookers and would-be delegates who were previously put off Singapore because of cost will feel compelled to come if casinos are part of the mix. But is casino gaming Singapore-style the most appropriate ‘trap’ to catch these kinds of high value visitors? That question has been made more pertinent by the decision of the Casino Regulatory Authority effectively to regulate VIP junkets out of the market. Some anecdotal evidence so far from Resorts World Sentosa has been that many casino users—perhaps the majority—have been mass-market customers from Malaysia and Indonesia. Once the first set of official numbers is out, we will have a better picture of just who is coming. One obvious way to monitor the relationship, if any, between casinos and the MICE market would be for the Singapore Exhibition & Convention Bureau to include a question on the relationship between casinos and MICE booking decisions in its market research. Short stayers Using April 2009 visitor arrivals as a snapshot, there’s evidence that currently many of the nationalities Asian casino operators think of as their target customers are not staying in Singapore hotels. Out of 778,817 tourist arrivals in April 2009, nearly half came from just four countries, according to STB data. They were: Indonesia Rendering of the casino at Marina Bay Sands (126,797); the People’s Republic of China (86,522); India (55,985) and Malaysia (51,262). There appears to be a correlation between proximity of those visitors to the market and length of stay. The nearer they live to Singapore, the more likely they are to be part-day or one-day visitors. Of the Indonesian visitors in April 2009, 30.6% stayed for fewer than 24 hours, 18.5% stayed for one whole day, 15.9% stayed two days and 12.3% stayed three days. With the Malaysians, 44.6% were in town for fewer than 24 hours. A total of 21% stayed for one day, 13.9% for two days and 8.4% for three days. With the Chinese visitors, 32.7% were in town less than one day, 43.3% stayed for one day, 5% stayed for two days and 4.5% stayed for three days. Among the cohort of arrivals from India, 16.1% visited for less than one day, 13.9%, stayed one day, 19.6% stayed two days and 16.8% remained for three days. There’s some insight from the local travel industry regarding the large number of people who stay for less than a full day. One factor quoted is the impact of the fly-cruise holiday trade. In that segment, passengers arrive in Singapore, clear immigration and are counted as ‘arrivals’ for statistical purposes. But in fact they transfer straight to their cruise ship. On return, they are again counted as another ‘arrival’, regardless of whether or not they stay on in Singapore or catch a return flight. Other visitors are counted as arrivals simply on the basis that they use the Budget Terminal at Changi International Airport dedicated to low cost airlines. Passengers who need to make transfers from the Budget Terminal to another flight must clear immigration, collect Singapore Visitor Arrivals, Top 15 Markets, Apr 09 Source: STB and Singapore Disembarkation/Embarkation Cards Indonesia P R China Australia India Malaysia Philippines UK Thailand Japan Hong Kong SAR USA Vietnam South Korea Germany Taiwan -3.8 -19.6 +3.1 -11.0 -4.6 +13.4 -0.1 -11.3 -12.9 +41.3 -9.3 +13.4 -37.2 +12.4 -14.2 %Chg Vs 08 127 87 65 56 51 45 42 32 32 29 28 22 21 16 12 0 Total VA: 778,817 (-6.1% vs Apr08) 50 100 150 ‘000 MICE in Singapore