Gaming | Analysts dismiss ‘transit visa panic’ concerns

A “transit visa panic” has been gripping Macau investors, according to a report published by Forbes yesterday. “Reports last week of tightened restrictions on transit visas, along with a Chinese official in Macau urging greater economic diversification and a sensational Beijing newspaper feature about the perils of overseas gambling, are thought to be behind big declines in Macau casinos shares, with several of the Hong Kong traded counters hitting new lows Tuesday [yesterday],” the report states.
Forbes cites Union Gaming Research analysts Grant Govertsen and Felicity Chiang saying that the concerns have been “overblown”, since calls for economic diversification made by Beijing are not new.
Concerning the transit visa issue, the Union Gaming analysts went to the underground mall adjacent to the Gongbei border gate in Zhuhai and noted that the travel agencies and kiosks that offer services that help mainland travellers apply for a visa to foreign countries, allowing them to enter the SARs as transit passengers and stay in the territory for up to five days (cut from seven days in July), are still operating, despite reports of a crackdown.
However, they observed that “immigration officials seemed to be more carefully enforcing previously existing rules about transit visa applicants using a different immigration channel, which had ‘painfully longer’ lines than the regular counters as immigration officials scrupulously checked documents.” But there was no evidence that immigration officials were turning away thousands of applicants or telephoning airlines directly to confirm onward ticket validity. So they concluded that transit visa applicants could face “the added inconvenience of waits that could amount to hours, but no significant new restrictions.”