Macau's international visitor arrivals have already recovered to 68.2 percent of 2019 levels, with 584,026 foreign tourists received in the first quarter of 2024. The Philippines led the charge, with over 110K tourists.

Macau is still working on bringing more international visitors to improve the pace of its recovery. In the first quarter of the year, the city received 585,000 international visitors out of a total of 8.9 million visitor arrivals. This means international visitors accounted for only about 6.6 percent of the total visitors.

Tradeview Capital Sdn Bhd CEO Ng Zhu Hann believes Malaysia's tourism market will outperform its ASEAN competitors in 2024. In an interview with AGB, Ng commented that thanks to mutual visa-free entry for Malaysia and China, along with the historically low ringgit, the country’s tourism market is expected to excel this year.

Malaysia's tourism market is highly expected to outperform this year among ASEAN competitors, says Tradeview Capital Sdn Bhd CEO Ng Zhu Hann.

Visitors from South Korea, Thailand, and Mainland China ranked as the top three with the highest visitor spending per capita in Macau last year.

Macau's methods for attracting foreign punters are being met with some skepticism from industry professionals, as the SAR announced its intention to invest $12 million to subsidize some 100,000 international air tickets. The government is working with the six local concessionaires in bringing in more foreign punters, as the second year of gaming operators' licenses rolls out. The hope is to prolong stay in the SAR, and up spending on non-gaming activities.

Genting Malaysia and Genting Singapore should benefit greatly from the return of Chinese visitors in 2024, according to brokerages Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB) Research and Maybank.

Visa-free entry for Chinese citizens may have a negligible impact on Malaysia's gaming industry, according to a Maybank analyst.

Investment bank Maybank has revised its earning estimates for Genting Berhad due to the strong performance posted by the group in 3Q23.

A Malaysian national has been sentenced by Singaporean authorities to three years and four months in jail over a scheme to record cards dealt at Baccarat games at Marina Bay Sands (MBS).