Today Macau Is Forever Changed

The long awaited hiatus is over. It’s sure good to be back on the bullhorn. Lots have happened since my last post. We’re now one brand, i.e. Macau.com: Your Macau Travel Insider. The other brand, and its garish orange, can now fade from memory.

Well, you’re likely not here to read about our corporate maneuvering, so I’ll give up the goods. Yesterday I spent the better part of the day at the world’s 2nd largest building: The Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel. Wow!

I first headed over as part of the media contingent in the early a.m. Having been in and out of Macau since early 2004 and here permanently for well over a year, the opening of Venetian Macao was the milestone in Macau development that I, along with much Macau, have been long awaiting. Its arrival was a little unreal for the lot of us that has watched the behemoth Venetian rise out of the Taipa mudflats. As my bus pulled into the back driveway and the intricacy of the Italian exterior became visible, I was overwhelmed by a sense that in the next moments Macau would inextricably change forever.

Once inside, I was awed at the scale of the building and the meticulous attention to detail. It will be difficult to explain in mere words the marvelous artistic and design delights which exist inside the sprawling complex. Frescoes that conjure images of Michelangelo’s masterful Sistine Chapel beautify the ceilings. Thick, highly colourful carpets and polished marble cover the floors. Statues, flowers, and adornments ornament the walls and open spaces. The Grand Canal, which is the shopping esplanade has hundreds of shops, each set within a vibrantly re-created Venetian building. Singing gondoliers transport young lovers and overwhelmed tourists. Arch bridges permit crossing from one side of the canal to the other and squares, the greatest being St. Mark’s, provide suitable area to gape at the surreal surroundings.

The press conference was less interesting for the information that was announced, as it was primarily very safe press release type info, and more so for Mr. Sheldon Adelson and his group. They were in high spirits and a few jokes were cracked, like Mr. Adelson wishing his competitors “Good Luck” with his fingers crossed. However he then countered to say that all groups should work to collectively market Macau as a destination and then fight for customers once they were here.

I returned in the evening with one of Macau.com’s shareholders, the publisher of Inside Asian Gaming, and the owner of Elevation Wines – the company that provided all of the wine for the evening’s gala event – to see the Grand Opening Show. While touring the main halls, the overwhelming opinion of our quartet and anyone else that has spent some time in Vegas was that the Venetian Macao dwarfs the Vegas properties. It’s huge.

On with the show… If you love Canto-pop you would have been in heaven. Awesome shows by A-Mei, David Tao, Grasshopper, and Alan Tam. Cirque du Soleil dazzled audiences with wildly captivating drama and thrilling acrobatic feats. The finale was a song by the legendary Diana Ross. I was amazed by her voice. It electrified the air. It was so rich and had such range. One of the best singing performances I’ve ever seen.

The best quote from the media press conference that in my opinion summarizes the mood from the evening and an opinion that I cannot emphasize enough is “…that the Venetian Macao represents a massive paradigm shift for Macao and the future of tourism development in Asia.” The Venetian and indeed the entire Cotai Strip is built for multi-night holidaymakers wanting world-class entertainment, accommodation, and dining. If the Venetian Macao is any indication of what’s to come, Macau is going to be one helluva place.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 at 2:04 pm and is filed under Gossip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.