LAST WORD

Lost horizons

Sharon Singleton | Managing Editor, AGB

I first discovered Macau whilst working as a foreign correspondent in Hong Kong in the run up to the 1997 handover to China.

Back then, Macau was the closest place to go for R&R, away from the crowds and the hustle of Hong Kong to a quieter pace of life and a little taste of Europe. Traffic at that point was virtually non-existent and the preferred mode of transport was the mini-moke, a glorified golf cart that was possible to hire cheaply with no focus on niceties such as licenses and insurance.

The Cotai Strip was not even a twinkle in Sheldon Adelson’s eye and in the mostly low-rise town of old Macau, the Lisboa dominated the skyline. It was not for the faint hearted. Entering through the metal detectors, the noise from the casino floor was a deafening assault on the senses, while your eyes struggled to adjust to the thick blanket of smoke.

Still, it was always crowded and a good indicator of the underlying potential that came to be unleashed with liberalisation of the market and awarding of six new licenses in 2002.

Returning in 2013 to cover the industry as the managing editor for Asia Gaming Brief, Macau was virtually unrecognisable. The Venetian, Sands Cotai and City of Dreams were open for business amidst a giant building site that was hard to envisage as the Cotai Strip of today.

However, that old Macau, with its unique mix of Portuguese and Chinese culture had seemingly been pushed to the back burner and for a non gambler the enclave held little appeal as a holiday destination. Yes, it has increasingly fine restaurants, top end hotels and shopping...lots of it, but not much else to fill the days.

After its first significant downturn in gross gambling revenue since liberalisation in 2014, the government sat up and took notice that the bulk of its revenue came from a single industry that was dominated by one segment of the tourism market, albeit a very large one.

Branding and tourism experts argue that Macau still has not been able to develop a consistent message across all the various stakeholders when it comes to the city’s brand identity.

Its mantra in the past few years has been to push the six gaming operators to diversify their product offering and introduce more non-gaming attractions to appeal to a broader family audience. They have also sought to throw the tourism net wider, to attract visitors from longer-haul destinations such as India. Still, in 2018, more than 90 percent of tourists came from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Macau’s tourism authorities have been trying hard to rebrand Macau, with a focus on its unique cultural heritage and as an events city, with a strong calendar of annual features,such as the Grand Prix and the Macau Film Festival.

However, according to most academic research, the first image that springs to mind in the prospective traveller is of Macau as a gaming hub. When the tiny city was the only real game in Asia that may not have been such a major issue, but with competition mounting across the region, it can no longer claim gambling as its unique selling point.

Branding and tourism experts argue that Macau still has not been able to develop a consistent message across all the various stakeholders when it comes to the city’s brand identity. There has not been adequate input from the integrated resorts, which each have their own marketing departments pushing their own brands to fill their hotel rooms. Few of the IRs can argue they are offering something uniquely Macau, with Italian, French and soon-to-be London-themed IRs providing social media photo opportunities for Chinese tourists.

Without a clearer focus on what is uniquely Macau, it will be an uphill battle for the city’s tourism authorities to attract a non-gaming, diversified tourism base.