Quick takes

Hong Kong’s arrivals down 94% in 2020

Obviously, this is not a surprise, but it is a stark reminder of how hard travel and tourism in Asia has been hit by COVID-19. With borders essentially closed in 2020, arrivals to Hong Kong fell from 55.9 million to 3.57 million – and most of those arrivals occurred in January 2020 before borders were closed.

LVS without Sheldon

A long look at the future of Las Vegas Sands. In short, it is all about Asia. LVS is considering selling its properties on the Vegas Strip, and Macau and Singapore are now the crown jewels as they account for 70% of the company’s annual revenues.

IAAPA moves annual event from Macau to Shanghai

This sums up the outlook for events in Asia in the first half of 2021. Macau, which has recorded one (yes, just one!) COVID-19 case since May 2020, will not be the host of IAAPA’s annual event in 2021. Instead of Macau in June, IAAPA opted for Shanghai in August, which suggests that IAAPA thinks that even their Mainland Chinese delegates would not be able to easily enter Macau by June.

(Legal) casinos in Thailand?

In Japan, the bidding process to license and develop integrated resorts (IRs) has completely gone off the rails. Now, the Thai government is signalling that it is open to the idea of developing IRs in an effort to undermine the endless number of illegal casinos that operate in the Kingdom.

Digital vaccination certificates may lead to travel

International Air Transport Association (IATA) is pushing the European Union to agree to a common digital COVID-19 vaccination certificate that would enable those who are vaccinated to travel freely within Europe. Emirates will the first airline to trial the IATA digital passport.