The improvement in volume of Chinese visitors to Singapore “is expected to contribute positively” to the “performance” of the Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) casino resort (pictured) in the city-state, said the venue’s promoter.

Genting Singapore Ltd was responding, via a voluntary filing to the Singapore Exchange on Friday, to questions submitted by its shareholders ahead of the annual general meeting on April 18.

Restated data issued by Singapore Tourism Board show that first-quarter Chinese visitor volume to Singapore as a whole, lagged the overall recovery rate for the city’s tourism market relative to the pre-pandemic trading period of 2019.

Chinese visitor volume for the first three months of this year was 81.8 percent of first-quarter 2019. The Singapore inbound tourism market as a whole, recovered to 92.8 percent of first-quarter 2019.

Genting Singapore said: “International visitor arrivals recovered strongly in 2023 due to resilience in regional travel demand and increasing flight capacity.”

The company added: “China surpassed Indonesia to become the biggest source of tourists for Singapore in February 2024. Some 327,000 Chinese visitors arrived in Singapore [that month], accounting for 30 percent of all foreign arrivals.”

Genting Singapore further stated: “According to the Singapore Tourism Board, the increase in numbers was due to the relaxation of visa regulations between Singapore and China that took effect on 9 February 2024.”

That was a reference to mutual arrangements for 30-day visa-free travel between the two countries.

The casino operator did not directly address in its voluntary filing another shareholder question, seeking comment on a recent warning by the Chinese Embassy in Singapore for Chinese citizens to stay away from gambling, and whether this “could this have a negative impact on the company’s operational performance going forward”.

Genting Singapore shares a casino duopoly in Singapore with Las Vegas Sands Corp, which runs the Marina Bay Sands resort.

Singapore concert sector, RWS reinvestment

The operator of Resorts World Sentosa was also asked about what impact – if any – recent large-scale concerts in Singapore – by respectively, the international acts Coldplay, Taylor Swift, and Bruno Mars -, had on visitor volume and “expenditure” at the gaming resort.

Genting Singapore stated: “Large-scale concerts featuring internationally-renowned artists amplify Singapore’s global brand and international stature as a vibrant tourism destination.”

“Overall increase in international visitor arrivals to Singapore benefits Resorts World Sentosa in its recovery of visitorship and hospitality spending,” it added.

The fourth-quarter results of Genting Singapore were a “miss” versus analysts’ consensus, mainly because of “several one-off items,” suggested a recent note from Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd, following the casino operator’s full-year earnings statement.

Regarding funding for a circa SGD6.80-billion (US$5.02 billion) reinvestment in Resorts World Sentosa, the company said it was “confident that this investment will firmly anchor Resorts World Sentosa as the most sought-after tourism destination in Asia, and propel the group’s strong future growth”.

“The investment will be funded through internal resources and it is not expected to have a material impact to the company’s earnings in the near term,” the firm stated.

The investment figure includes “amounts which have been spent and the remainder to be invested over the next eight years,” the company said in November last year when it announced the reinvestment plan. That was a reference to a previous SGD4.5-billion pledge to the city-state’s authorities for the expansion of the complex, known as “RWS 2.0”.

Lim Kok Thay, head of the Genting group’s founding family, had noted in March commentary, that as part of the reinvestment plan, construction of a new “Waterfront development” was “set to commence in late 2024,” after receiving the local “government’s provisional permission”.