Star Entertainment will reap more from tourism growth

Monday 1st of August 2016

Australian casino operator Star Entertainment Group is set to outperform its major rival, Crown Resorts, with Asian tourists increasingly opting to travel to Australia’s east coast, The Australian reports.

While both Crown and The Star will benefit from international tourism growth, The Star was seen by analysts as slightly better placed to benefit from “superior” rates of growth on the east coast.

According to Macquarie’s team of gaming analysts, Sydney and Melbourne will see “robust” international tourism growth of 6 percent and 4 percent in 2017 respectively, while Queensland will see 29 percent growth in 2017.

Gold Coast will also see international flights to the city grow more than 45 percent in 2017, which would work well with The Star’s redevelopment of its Jupiters casino.

“With completion of Jupiters’ A$345 million (US$262.9 million) redevelopment anticipated in 2018, the ability for Jupiters Gold Coast to participate in significant tourism growth will be dependent on the ability to mitigate development disruption,” said analysts quoted by the Australian media outlet.

“We have developed a preference for The Star … overall The Star is better placed for growth due to its exposure to higher-rate east coast tourism growth, greater rates of Chinese tourism growth, and avoidance of Western Australia’s weak economy.”

Bricks & Mortar Growth Visitors International Asian tourism