Newsnomics AJAY ANGELINA reporter |

According to the Korean financial investment industry, the Paradise stock price closed at 15,410 won on the 3rd, the most recent trading day. It rose 8.36% compared to March 29 (14,220 won). In addition, GKL rose 9.10% from 12,860 won to 14,030 won during the same period, and Lotte Tourism Development rose 3.68% from 9,790 won to 10,150 won.  

It is higher than the KOSPI and KOSDAQ returns of -2.55% and -4.40% during the same period according to the financial investment industry report on May 7,2024

This upward trend can be interpreted as the result of the recent continuous increase in the number of foreigners visiting Korea. As the number of foreign tourists increased, the table drop amount (the amount of money exchanged for chips by casino customers) also increased significantly.

According to the Korea Tourism Organization, the number of foreigners visiting Korea is rapidly increased to 3,402,873 than that of 880,881 in January,1,030,244 in February and 1,491,748 in March of this year 2024. This is counted to be 98.5% increase as compared to the same period last year. It is only about 10% different from the 3,842,246 people in the first quarter of 2019 before COVID-19.

Last month, the total drop amount of Paradise, GKL, and Lotte Tourism Development was 1.1 trillion won that shows the increase of 12% compared to the same period last year.

Ji In-hae, a researcher at Shinhan Investment & Securities, explained that “What the three casino companies have in common is that they increased evenly in Japan, China, and other VIP and mass (general customer) regions.”

"The Foreign casinos showed good performance in April following the March has been recorded” he added.

Paradise's first quarter sales and operating profit forecasts predicted by securities companies were 267.7 billion won and 40.2 billion won, up 3.56% and 8.36%, respectively, from one month ago. 

In addition, Lotte Tourism Development's sales and operating profit forecasts are expected to increase by 6.44% and 312.5% to 102.4 billion won and 3.3 billion won, respectively.

In particular, it is expected that performance will improve further in this year as time goes by. 

As there are special holiday periods such as Japan's Golden Week (April 27-May 6) and China's Labor Day holiday (May 1-5).

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to increase regular summer international flight routes to 98% of per-COVID-19 levels for this purpose.

Lee Nam-soo, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities said, “It is highly likely that the recovery in domestic casino demand will be achieved along with the normalization of airline tickets as we move into the second half of the year,” adding, “We should focus on improving performance in the second half of the year as compared to the first half of the year.”