{"id":73528,"date":"2018-03-22T16:00:07","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T23:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=73528"},"modified":"2018-03-22T11:31:06","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T18:31:06","slug":"south-koreas-foreigner-only-casinos-suffer-from-chinese-travel-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/south-koreas-foreigner-only-casinos-suffer-from-chinese-travel-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea\u2019s Foreigner-only Casinos Suffer from Chinese Travel Ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chinese ban on the sale of package tours to South Korea has dented the revenues of the country\u2019s casino sector, which is overwhelmingly foreigner only.<\/p>\n

\"China
Paradise City on Yeongjong Island opened in 2017 with the hope of attracting wealthy Chinese gamblers, but the package tours ban has caused revenues to slide for the Paradise Group. (Image: Paradise Group)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ban was one of several retaliatory measures adopted by the Chinese government in March 2017 following a diplomatic fallout over the Washington-backed deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in south-eastern South Korea.\u00a0Beijing has claimed that the system\u2019s radar can be used to spy on China.<\/p>\n

The resulting decline in visitors has battered South Korean industries that rely on foreign visitors. The casino sector, with its ban on locals, is highly exposed to the fallout from a dearth in tourism.<\/p>\n

Of South Korea\u2019s 18 casinos, just one is legally open to locals \u2013 Kangwon Land<\/a>, in the remote highlands of Gangwon Province, where the Winter Olympics were staged.<\/p>\n

Tourism Drought<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Of the total of 1.2 million gamblers who visited South Korea last year, 44.4 percent were Chinese, down from 50 percent the previous year.<\/p>\n

By contrast, the Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has recently engineered a detente with the Beijing that has seen the easing of visa restrictions between the two countries, which had previously been at loggerheads over disputed territories in the South China Sea. As a result, the Philippine casino industry is booming like never before.<\/p>\n

The good news for South Korea\u2019s casinos is the lucrative Chinese VIP segment is not accustomed to buying package vacations \u2013 these high rollers are far more likely to arrive by private jet.<\/p>\n

Revenues Down<\/strong><\/h2>\n

But the casinos took a hit, nevertheless. South Korean news agency Yonhap has reported that revenues for the Paradise Group, which operates hotels and casinos in the country, were down 3.9 percent in 2017, to $623 million. That translated into a net loss of almost $30 million.<\/p>\n

\n

Paradise said Chinese tourists accounted for 35 percent of VIP clients last year, compared with 45 percent the previous year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Meanwhile, revenues for the state-owned operator Grand Korea Leisure Co dropped 8.6 percent year on year.<\/p>\n

Seoul and Beijing\u2019s relations improved after negotiations last November and the latter has agreed to lift some of its economic restrictions on South Korea. But the package tour ban<\/a> largely remains in place, which does not bode well for casino performance in the forthcoming year.<\/p>\n

“Foreigners-only casinos fared far worse last year due to a decrease in the number of Chinese tourists,\u201d an “industry watcher\u201d told Yonhap. \u201cThey are expected to have tough times this year unless China completely lifts its ban.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chinese ban on the sale of package tours to South Korea has dented the revenues of the country\u2019s casino sector, which is overwhelmingly foreigner only. The ban was one of several retaliatory measures adopted by the Chinese government in March 2017 following a diplomatic fallout over the Washington-backed deployment of a Terminal High Altitude […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":73530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,18,61],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSouth Korea\u2019s Foreigner-only Casinos Suffer from Chinese Travel Ban<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"China\u2019s back on South Korean package tours has hit South Korea casinos, which, with their ban on locals, rely on tourism almost completely for their revenues.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"South Korea\u2019s Foreigner-only Casinos Suffer from Chinese Travel Ban\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"China\u2019s back on South Korean package tours has hit South Korea casinos, which, with their ban on locals, rely on tourism almost completely for their revenues.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/south-koreas-foreigner-only-casinos-suffer-from-chinese-travel-ban\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-22T23:00:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-22T18:31:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/paradise.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"853\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/south-koreas-foreigner-only-casinos-suffer-from-chinese-travel-ban\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/south-koreas-foreigner-only-casinos-suffer-from-chinese-travel-ban\/\",\"name\":\"South Korea\u2019s Foreigner-only Casinos Suffer from Chinese Travel Ban\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/south-koreas-foreigner-only-casinos-suffer-from-chinese-travel-ban\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/south-koreas-foreigner-only-casinos-suffer-from-chinese-travel-ban\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/paradise.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-22T23:00:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-22T18:31:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"China\u2019s back on South Korean package tours has hit South Korea casinos, which, with their ban on locals, rely on tourism almost completely for their revenues.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/south-koreas-foreigner-only-casinos-suffer-from-chinese-travel-ban\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/south-koreas-foreigner-only-casinos-suffer-from-chinese-travel-ban\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/south-koreas-foreigner-only-casinos-suffer-from-chinese-travel-ban\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/paradise.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/paradise.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":853,\"caption\":\"Paradise City on Yeongjong Island opened in 2017 with the hope of attracting wealthy Chinese gamblers, but the package tours ban has caused revenues to slide for the Paradise Group. 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