G2E Asia is on the move with the 2022 event set to relocate from its traditional home of Macau to Singapore. It will be known as “G2E Asia Special Edition: Singapore.”
Organizers Reed Exhibitions and the American Gaming Association revealed via the G2E Asia website today that the event will be held at Marina Bay Sands from 24 to 26 August 2022. This replaces the previously announced trade event, which had been scheduled to take place at The Venetian Macao from 30 August to 1 September 2022.
IAG understands that the move to Singapore is planned to be a temporary one, with the intention of returning to Macau once travel and border restrictions are eased. No doubt it is hoped this will be in time for the 2023 event, presumably to be held in its traditional May time slot.
The news is the latest in a number of scheduling changes for G2E Asia, which was twice postponed in 2020, first from May to July and again to December, before being cancelled altogether. The show was eventually re-scheduled for May 2021, then moved to August and again to November before finally being “postponed” to August 2022.
Prior to COVID-19, G2E Asia had been held annually since 2007. But due to the pandemic the show was last held in May 2019, meaning it will be three years and three months between shows by the time G2E Asia in Singapore rolls around, and at least four years between G2E Asia instalments in its “spiritual home” of Macau.
The decision to relocate to Singapore comes after authorities in the sovereign state dropped almost all restrictions on fully vaccinated international arrivals from 1 April onwards, with visitors needing only to provide a negative PCR test prior to departure.
Show exhibitors based outside Macau – mainly from Southeast Asia with a few companies from outside Asia – will no doubt be pleased to finally see the return of G2E Asia. But those based in Macau will face a number of challenges to attend. These will include logistical issues due to the change in location and, upon returning to Macau, a 14-day quarantine followed by seven days of so-called ”self-health management”, assuming those existing provisions will still be in place. For this reason the show may well be smaller than usual, as was also the case for the first post-pandemic G2E Las Vegas show, and is the case for the first post-pandemic instalment of ICE, to be held in London next week.
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