Working together with neighboring cities to make Macau a more attractive tourism destination was one of a number of topics discussed during MGS Summit 2022 – a one-day online conference held in November.
Macau must cooperate with its neighboring cities in the Greater Bay Area to create a more diversified travel experience if it truly hopes to attract international tourists in the future, according to industry experts and representatives of Macau’s concessionaires.
Speaking at the one-day MGS Summit industry event in November, Ben Toh Hup Hock, COO – Finance and Development for SJM Resorts S.A., explained that Macau still faced many challenges in achieving its goal of incentivizing more foreigners to visit – none more so than its modest 30 square kilometers of land mass.
The problem can be addressed, however, by working with nearby cities to develop comprehensive tourism plans.
“Macau [covers] about 30 square kilometers, so if we want to attract tourists to stay in Macau for seven nights it will be a bit difficult,” said Toh.
“So we really need to work with neigboring cities such as Zhuhai and Guangzhou in the Greater Bay Area so we can link our travel and tourism resources and offer a more diversified travel experience to our tourists.”
Toh noted that Macau has plenty of high-quality experiences to offer, with the six concessionaires having invested significantly into the SAR over the past 20 years. However, this also created an image problem, he said.
“We still have some challenges because of past developments,” Toh explained. “Many international tourists still consider Macau as a city of casinos, so we need to step up our efforts in promoting Macau as a diversified city – showcasing to the world that Macau is not just about casinos but we also have many other events around entertainment, culture, sports.
“What we need to do is to change the mindset of international tourists so they can see the other side of Macau.”
Raymond Lo, Senior Vice President, General Manager of Macao Altira Casino & Hotel and Mocha Clubs at Melco Resorts & Entertainment, said Macau was already well-positioned to attract foreign tourists provided it’s messaging is correct.
“Macau has very profound advantages because in the 13th and 14th national plan the idea was to develop Macau as an international tourism center,” he said.
“It is also home to many historical heritage sites accredited by UNESCO, is a city of gastronomy and has this east meets west culture and history, so Macau has all these elements that could attract so many visitors from the outside world.
“This kind of integration makes Macau a landmark and a brand as a tourism city, and what we are [looking to do] in the future is to make use of these elements and advantages to further promote Macau.”
Also appearing at the MGS Summit were representatives of major industry suppliers on a panel exploring the technical development of electronic gaming machine manufacturing, where it was revealed that Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) may be considering offering a two-year extension to the original 31 December 2024 deadline by which all EGMs on Macau’s gaming floors must be compliant with new technical standards.
EGM Technical Standards 2.0, which governs the operation of electronic gaming machines in the SAR, was published in early 2021 and represents the first update to Macau’s EGM Technical Standards since version 1.1 was released in 2014.
Lloyd Robson, General Manager, Asia for Aristocrat, told the MGS Summit panel, “It was our original understanding that by end of 2024 all compliance was the order of the day, but maybe that will be pushed out further. We will work with the direction the DICJ provides.”
Meanwhile, on a panel discussing developments in other jurisdictions across Asia, Spectrum Asia CEO Paul Bromberg suggested recent moves to legalize casino gaming in Thailand will almost certainly be delayed until after the March 2023 elections but added it is now more likely than not that casino legislation will become a reality.
“I think now there is true bipartisan support for casino legalization,” he said. “There have been polls, I don’t know how accurate they are, showing that the vast majority of the Thai population would not object to having casinos, although when you get down to a more micro level local communities might object.
“So the atmosphere right now is more beneficial than it has ever been in the past 50 years.”
Other topics discussed at MGS Summit 2022 included a look at what diversification really means for Macau, exploring future use cases for China’s Digital RMB and other technologies, and a deep dive into the development of Hengqin.
