Ambiente Properties, in conjunction with GW Investment Consulting, conducted an Investors Tour of Hengqin, on Friday 16 November.
A first in a series of tours tailored to the interests of those within the business, investor and gaming operator community, wishing to get a progress report on Hengqin’s development and to see firsthand how Hengqin is about to change the business landscape in Macau.
Macau’s ‘new front door’, Hengqin is a Free Trade Zone, three times the size of Macau, and through favorable policies and improved transportation links with the Cotai Strip, it is set to be closely integrated with Macau’s economy, and the impact will be felt by everyone invested in, and operating in Macau. This tour shed light on how this impact will be felt by Macau’s gaming and hotel properties, and in turn the effect on their share prices, their annual visitation numbers, the potential mix of visitors and in what years will these changes start taking effect. What is the likelihood of Hengqin being turned into a special zone that allows companies to operate casinos there?
Other questions addressed were on how the buildout of transportation infrastructure will boost visitor volumes to both Hengqin and Macau. Hengqin will soon have more than 10,000 hotel rooms. Most will cater to tourists; some will be business hotels. That will add another one-third to Cotai’s room capacity. When will some kind of “critical mass” be achieved in Hengqin, which results in attracting a substantial number of visitors that would otherwise not likely have visited Macau? How will the rise of Hengqin as a tourist destination affect the central government’s policies on visa requirements for mainlanders visiting Macau?
Next tour date: Friday 25 January 2019.
