GGRAsia – Sands China woos Singaporeans as Air Macau opens route

Sands China woos Singaporeans as Air Macau opens route

Mar 23, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Singapore, Top of the deck

Macau casino operator Sands China Ltd is partnering with the city’s flag-carrier airline, Air Macau Co Ltd, to offer what is termed “an exclusive hotel package and a wide range of privileges” to “Singaporean and regional visitors”, to mark what Sands China said was the “inauguration” of the airline’s Macau-Singapore route.

Sands China’s parent, Las Vegas Sands Corp, runs the Marina Bay Sands casino resort in Singapore.

Air Macau had previously announced a service between Macau International Airport and Singapore would start on Thursday (March 23).

The Macau campaign outlined on Thursday by Sands China encompasses an accommodation offer – running between now and June 30 – for Sands China’s Londoner Macao resort (pictured) on Cotai. Another part of the campaign is that – subject to terms and conditions – people presenting an Air Macau boarding pass can get either discounts or other benefits on “leisure activities and resort-themed souvenirs” across Sands resorts in Macau.

Wilfred Wong Ying Wai, president of Sands China, was cited in a Thursday press release as saying: “This collaboration demonstrates Sands China’s continuing efforts to diversify visitor source markets geared toward tourism and economic revival, and promote Macau as a world centre of tourism and leisure.”

As part of the Macau government’s tender process for new 10-year gaming concessions, bidders were asked to create plans and pledge investment on a number of issues, including bringing in more customers from overseas. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Macau was overwhelmingly a Chinese tourism market, with mainland China and Hong Kong accounting for 89.6 percent of Macau’s 39.4-million visitor arrivals in 2019, according to Macau government data.

March 18 saw nearly 100,000 visitors to Macau – the highest daily tally since the start of the pandemic in early 2020. But in comments at a public event on Thursday, a senior official of the Macao Government Tourism Office said the city’s volume of international visitors was still “relatively low”, due to “transport constraints”.