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2007-08-27 06:25:11
by Guy NeweySun Aug 26, 12:52 AM ET
The gargantuan Venetian resort casino will have 1.8 billion dollars at stake
when it opens Tuesday, betting it can turn Macau from a gambling paradise into
a family entertainment centre to rival Las Vegas.
The Venetian Macau, operated by the Las Vegas giant Sands, will be the world's
biggest casino, the company says. Only one building in the world -- a Nasa
facility in Florida -- is bigger by floor area, it adds.
The behemoth has 3,000 rooms, a fleet of gondolas along its shop-lined canals,
and includes what seems to be a full-scale version of Venice's landmark Bridge
of Sighs.
On its opening Tuesday -- August 28 is an auspicious date in China -- around
160 of the 350 stores at the Venetian will open, shifting the emphasis in the
southern Chinese territory from roulette to top-end retail. The company would
not comment on whether it was disappointed with the occupancy rate.
The Wynn Macau, in comparison, has only around a dozen luxury brand stores --
although it includes the most profitable Louis Vuitton store per square floor
in all of handbag-mad Asia.
Amid the Venetian's singing gondoliers lingers the question of whether the
project can help Macau emulate Las Vegas's change from pure gambling to a
genuine entertainment centre, where exhibitions, shopping and big shows account
for a huge chunk of revenue.
The Venetian strategy is simple: get the Asian visitor, who already spends a
huge amount on gambling, to come for longer, bring their family and scoop up
every luxury brand they can get their hands on.
Currently the average visitor stays in Macau for just 1.2 days, meaning most
leave without seeing anything apart from the gaming floor, but the market will
follow the product, its executives believe.
"The China customer is the highest spending tourist (per capita) on retail
outside of their country in the world. We expect people will just come here to
shop," David Sylvester, the Venetian Macau's vice-president of retail told the
South China Morning Post.
The new mix also means putting on audience-attracting sporting and
entertainment events -- from Manchester United to Cirque de Soleil -- and
expanding the city's exhibition facilities.
JP Morgan's Macau analyst Billy Ng believes the gamble will pay off.
"If you look at mainland tourists, when they are not gaming they look to go
shopping. No matter where they go -- Hong Kong or Europe, they are the same as
Hong Kong people, who like to shop very much," he said.
"As long as the product is attractive and you have a unique theme-oriented mall
with all the major brands, it will work."
Sands are also gambling on the Cotai Strip where the Venetian has been built, a
reclaimed strip of land now populated by cranes and foreign workers that aims
to have 18,500 hotel rooms by 2009, with many more planned.
Sanjay Nadkarni, a professor in tourism at Macau Science and Technology
University, whose office is just opposite the Venetian's huge lake, is not so
sure if the strategy will pay off.
"If that is the aim of Macau -- a sustainable tourism destination based on the
family market -- I just do not know how workable that is," he said.
"The Venetian is a watershed. There is no statistic available to show if it can
work, you just have to try and stare into your crystal ball to see if it will
succeed."
Nadkarni says Fisherman's Wharf, a collection of bars and family-targeted
entertainment, has already failed to attract women and youngsters to Macau,
although the Venetian's ambition is on a much bigger scale.
Rival casinos are watching with interest. JayDee Clayton, who runs Wynn's Macau
casino, said he welcomed the arrival of the giant, but that he expects his
customers to remain loyal.
"We are about luxury and niche not about scale and volume," he told AFP.
"We expect our customers to have a look at the Venetian, but we also expect
them to come back because that is where they feel comfortable."
But perhaps the X-factor in the success of Macau and the Cotai Strip is not the
elaborate entertainment and luxury brands in the venues, but the mainland
Chinese authorities.
Earlier this year, the government tightened access for mainland visitors to the
gambling haven. The reasons for the move are not clear, but Nadkarni is sure it
is a result of the fallout from heavy gambling.
"This is both to do with the social problems that gambling creates, but also
the fact that China's hard-earned money is just disappearing abroad," he said.
"So the risk is not simply the viability of the model the Cotai Strip is
proposing, but also the acceptability of the social cost to the Macanese people
and the mainland Chinese."
The social legacy for Macau of the boom is still to be played out. Although
none of the casinos have failed to find staff yet, the drain on a population of
525,500 to fill all the croupiers and service staff will only increase.
Reports of teachers and schoolkids quitting colleges for the better salaries
they can earn dealing blackjack are rife.
And in a sign of the challenges that lie ahead for Macau, mass protests in May
over the increasing number of foreign workers degenerated into violent rioting.
Posted: 2007651@477.14
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