The rate at which gambling volume among Japanese and Chinese tourists is recovering at many foreign-only casino resorts in South Korea is not necessarily positively correlated with the recovery rate of air travel between those locations and South Korea, suggesting second-quarter data checked with GGRAsia by several operators.
Nevertheless, the Korean government’s air travel data covers the first five months of the year, and since it missed June, a complete and direct comparison is not possible. The foreign customer data provided by the two major operators to GGRAsia covers the entire second quarter.
In terms of some key markets for inbound tourism to South Korea, the number of air travelers on Japan-Korea travel increased at a higher rate compared to China-Korea mainland and Hong Kong-Korea air travel in the first five months of 2023.
According to a recent statement from South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the number of air passengers between mainland China and South Korea in the January-May period of this year was just over 1.2 million. That was only a 16.7% recovery from just over 7.18 million air passengers during the pre-pandemic trading period of January-May 2019.
The recovery rate of air travel through Hong Kong was 35.3% and that of air travel through Macau was 7.3%.
For Japan, the number of visitors to South Korea in the January-May period was 74.0% before the pandemic, 72.6% via the Philippines, 139.4% via Singapore, 60.6% via Taiwan, 84.0% via Thailand and 83.5% via Vietnam, respectively.
According to data from Grand Korea Leisure Inc. (GKL), which operates three foreigner-only casino locations – two in Seoul and one in Busan – the number of Chinese visitors to its venues in the second quarter of this year was 79,281, compared to 255,101 in the second quarter of 2019. This was a 31.1 percent recovery rate.
In comparison, the number of Japanese visitors to the GKL stadium during the same period in 2023 was 44,877, a 52.7% recovery compared to 85,186 in the second quarter of 2019.
However, the contribution of Chinese VIP customers to GKL’s Q2 2023 Drop Volume was W159.06 billion (US$125.6 billion) through 11,272 customers. This compares to W257.38 billion delivered through 15,032 customers in Q2 2019. Compared to 2019, the 2023 recovery rate for Chinese VIP Drop Volume was 61.8%, and for Chinese VIP players, it was 75.0%.
In the second quarter of 2023, the drop amount of Japanese VIP players at the GKL venue recorded 236.14 billion won through 9,265 customers. In the same quarter of 2019, it recorded 274.89 billion won through 11,810 customers, showing recovery rates of 85.9% and 78.5%, respectively.
Paradise Co., Ltd. has two casino venues in the Greater Seoul area, one in Busan and one in Jeju.
BY: 홀짝게임