The biggest casinos in Australia are focused on attracting high roller visitors from Asia, but local visa restrictions are very stringent. To help encourage more gambling tourism from Asian residents, Crown Casinos Boss James Packer is working on loosening up visa requirements for Chinese residents. James Packer has spoken out against the current visa requirements for Chinese tourists.
He seems very passionate about the cause, stating that it is hypocritical for Chinese visitors to be treated differently from Americans. “The dollar’s at 91 cents because of China, not America, and we all benefit, so let’s not be hypocrites,” he says. “The visa processing system for Chinese tourists has improved recently, but there is more work to do in this area and each day we waste costs Australia a great amount of tourism dollars”.
He has called on the federal government to make changes to the visa application process to benefit Chinese tourists. For example, visa applications are only available in English. Packer aims to change this by encouraging the government to make applications available in Mandarin as well. It would also benefit Asian tourists if visa applications could be submitted online.
Relaxing visa requirements for Asian tourists and making the application process easier would certainly benefit Australia’s tourism market. Australian casino resorts are hugely popular destinations for Chinese tourists, and most high-roller gamblers hail from Asia. In addition to spending plenty of money at casinos, high-rollers are also likely to spend more on accommodation, eating out and shopping.
So, the local economy would benefit as a whole. Crown Resorts has the most to gain, however, since the operator is opening a new high-roller casino in 2019. It will certainly be a hot-spot for Asian high-rollers, and James Packer is preparing for the influx of visitors well in advance.
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