Inside Asian Gaming

April 2010 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 40 their luggage, clear customs, make their way to the main terminal by taking a shuttle bus and check-in again with the respective airline. These visitors are chalked up as ‘tourist arrivals,’ but do not clock time in Singapore, much less stay at hotels. Singapore also has some international visitors that arrive at its entry ports but then head directly to nearby destinations such as Bintan in Indonesia, which have better hotel room availability and lower rates. These budget travellers sometimes schedule a Singapore city tour on their return leg before flying out of Singapore. Quantity vs. Quality In a sense, the introduction of casinos can be seen as a no lose situation for the Singapore government. As long as more tourists turn up and spend money, the government gets extra revenue from taxation, regardless of whether they’re gamblers, day-trippers, conference goers or a mixture of all three. Singapore’s Changi Airport Cruise Ships & Passenger Throughput Volume, 2004-2008 1000 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0 Passenger Throughput (‘000) No. of Ship Calls Source: STB Annual Report on Tourism Statistics 2008 2005 2004 635 392 624 454 2006 2007 2008 Passenger Throughput Ship Calls 857 787 943 717 920 1,022 The‘quality’of visitors in terms of their spending is arguably more critical to the resort operators, given the constraints the Singapore authorities have placed on the amount of gaming space at the venues and the controls on who is allowed in the casinos (in terms of entry fees for local players and stringent regulatory controls on junkets). It’s likely to be the casino resort operators who will pore over the first official market returns the most keenly.