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MACAU - Just in time for China's Golden Week holiday, Sands China opened phase two of its Sands Cotai Central here late last month. Mainland tourists visiting to celebrate the 63rd anniversary of Mao Zedong's declaration of the People's Republic of China, or any other occasion, can now select the world's largest Sheraton hotel, alongside the world's largest Conrad and Holiday Inn that debuted during the initial opening of Sands Cotai Central (SCC) in April.Results have so far been solid, but by Macau standards underwhelming, for the $4.4 billion resort.
Perhaps the biggest problem facing Sands Cotai Central is that it opened during a rare rough patch in Macau's otherwise soaring economic trajectory since the end of Stanley Ho's casino monopoly a decade ago.
Gaming industry expansion has made Macau the fastest-growing region of China over those 10 years. Following 58% growth in 2010, casino revenue grew a staggering 42% last year to 268 billion Macau patacas (US$33.5 billion). That's more than five times the total for the Las Vegas Strip, and a bigger sum than the top 20 US casino markets combined.
Beijing's directive that Macau become an entertainment and leisure center under the latest five-year plan gave new impetus to longstanding demands for economic diversification.
New projects have to include better balance of other activities to go along with casinos, an attempt to make Macau a more attractive vacation destination.
"Mass market growth required the support of more non-gaming facilities," University of Macau gaming expert Ricardo Siu says.
"That was the model in Las Vegas." Las Vegas today gets more than half of its revenue from hotels, fine dining, shows and other non-gaming attractions, while Macau casino resorts still get nearly 90% of their revenue from gaming.
In turn, growth of Macau's mass market is helping those new attractions find an audience.
"The rise of the mass market has stimulated the demand for more diverse and innovative entertainment, other than gaming, for the young generation and families to attract their visits and longer stays," a spokesperson for Melco Crown Entertainment says. Its City of Dreams complex includes the US$250 million House of Dancing Waters stage spectacle; Club Cubic one of Macau's most popular nightclubs relocated from the peninsula; and Dragon's Treasure, a free multimedia show.
"Clearly the properties with large numbers of hotel rooms are best positioned to service the mass market. These include all of the resorts on Cotai as well as the newer properties in downtown Macau," Gaming Market Advisors principal Andrew Klebanow says. "Casinos make money from mass market players by first filling up their hotel rooms. Once those hotel rooms are full, they can then focus their attention on getting those guests into the casino. Heads in beds leads to bodies in the casino. The more rooms a casino has, the more heads it can place in their rooms, and the more bodies they can drive into their casinos."
"The mass market is very important to Sands China, So it's no accident that Sands Cotai Central chose the hotel partners it did with Conrad, Sheraton and Holiday Inn," Sands China president and chief executive officer Edward Tracy said. "The diversity of accommodation choices represented by those three internationally celebrated brands covers a wide spectrum of consumers."
Sands China's Tracy notes, "When all development phases of Sands Cotai Central are complete in early 2013, the combined Sands China portfolio of properties will feature over 9,000 hotel rooms and suites, 1.3 million square feet [120,774 square meters] of meetings and convention space, more than 90 different dining options, over 600 luxury and mid-market retail shops and 920,000 square feet of gaming space."
For now, that puts Sands China far ahead of its rivals in those categories, but they're all trying to catch up. Melco Crown is building cinema-themed Macau Studio City next to the Lotus Bridge border crossing into Cotai from Guangdong province and adding another hotel tower to City of Dreams. Wynn Macau won approval in May for a $4 billion, 2,000 room Cotai resort. Galaxy Macau's second phase will add 1,300 rooms under two international hotel brands, as well as shops and gardens around its famed rooftop wave pool. Sands China hopes to break ground his year on its $3 billion Parisian resort, south of the Venetian, with 3,000 rooms. MGM China and market leader Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM) are awaiting approval to build resorts in Cotai.
"With Macau's stated goal of becoming one of the world's top tourism destinations the only way the market can get there is by creating attractions that have a mass appeal," Union Gaming Group Macau-based analyst Grant Govertsen says. "I think it will take a long time to get there, but the next wave of casino-resort development on Cotai should begin to set the tone."
That wave has lapped the shore with the opening of Sands Cotai Central.
Asia Times Online :: Mass movement sweeps Macau
