August 29th, 2007 admin
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.
June 27th, 2007 Lee
As promised, I took another look inside…
As promised, I revisited Melco’s Crown Macau Casino (MPEL) yesterday (Tuesday 7 p.m. approx.). I thought what better way to get a feel for the place than to take the shuttle bus from the city centre. Well, true to my earlier report, a line formed waiting for the bus. I estimate a dozen or so individuals took the trip. As “burro” wondered, some people were just along for the ride. There appeared to be a few employees as well as a few individuals who did not go into the casino when we arrived. However, a good portion of the bus did enter the casino. I heard that there has been some active promotion on the part of the casino to bring people over to their Taipa property and true to this we were given a ticket that gave us a chance to spin the wheel when we arrived. My colleague’s ticket won that chance, but because he didn’t have his passport with him, he was thus ineligible…a bit disappointing.
The Crown Macau Casino has 5 floors. The first three are gaming floors, the fourth is a restaurant, and the fifth floor is a higher-minimums gaming floor. The first 3 floors had an active gaming scene. By this I mean there were a lot of tables in use, some to capacity but some empty. The central parts of the floors were busier than the fringes. Definitely, it wasn’t shoulder-to-shoulder like it can be at the Sands sometimes, but on the other hand, the first 3 floors had a scene, i.e. you wouldn’t think “This place is dead anyway.” (Swingers quote). The fifth floor on the other hand was empty minus a few individuals. This could be that minimum bets are more or less equivalent to my monthly rent. As for the punters, I heard more Mandarin (mainland) than Cantonese (HK, Macau, Guangdong Province).
In sum, I’ve walked through the Crown Macau on three occasions now (Grand Opening, one month ago, yesterday). Each time the casino has been busier than the last time. The Greek Mythology Casino in the New Century Hotel is right next door and it is one of the most profitable casinos in Macau. The location is probably the biggest obstacle, but as the Greek Mythology Casino has shown, it’s an obstacle that can be overcome with the right marketing. (I understand they cater exclusively to mainland tour groups, so the Crown Macau is likely going to pursue a different model.) My general feeling is that Macau is maturing into the type of destination that will attract visitors interested in visiting the Crown Macau. Maybe the Crown Macau is not packed this month, or this year, or even next year, but the property is in line with what most developers are planning and anticipating. I’m going to try and check the Crown Macau out again this weekend to note the difference.
By the way, I ate at the Crown Macau’s Monsoon noodle shop. Yum. I had Cantonese wonton noodle soup with Chinese chives and honey glazed BBQ pork. Delicious and very nicely presented.
Any comments, questions, etc. click below…
June 20th, 2007 Lee
Telltale Signs of a Casino on the Rise…
Our most popular blog posts have irrefutably been those on Melco’s Crown Macau (MPEL). The interest came from not only the general public, but also a few financial forums… Yahoo and MSN come to mind. Anyway, given your keen interest in this topic, I feel compelled to keep you abreast of happenings and give you, when I can, the bird’s-eye-view from a Macau vantage point. Here it is…
As you may have read elsewhere, Crown Macau is located on Taipa Island. Macau is tiny, but some say the short trip across the Pearl is a billion dollar gap. Well, perhaps it’s not that large, both figuratively and literally… Allow me to 开门见山 for you putonghua-ists…
The Crown Macau has a bus that shuttles punters from central Macau (right in front of the Hotel Sintra and Fortuna Japanese Restaurant, which is a hop, skip, and a jump from Grand Lisboa) to Crown Macau. Well, I’ve walked past this bus everyday for the last month+. And… the bus has been empty. The poor sweetheart waiting to greet customers seemed so lonesome. I wanted to jump in the bus, head across the strait, and throw a few tokens into the heart of the beast, just to give her some sense of purpose. Well dear friends, times have changed. The past week, the shuttle bus has not only had people, but also a queue! I’ll say it again for the flabbergasted… A Queue! And today, on my way to the office, the bus was chockablock jammed with punters, eager as beavers. I’ll make a trip out that way in the coming week and give y’all the 411 on whether there’s a noticeable difference on the floor.
May 31st, 2007 Lee
Sinocidal Re-gifts
We have a new Top-Dog Blog Contest winner this week. The gentlemen at Sinocidal, after realizing that our contest was not just a sheister sham, joined the fun and beat out our reigning champion Mr. Poon. They’ve just contacted us and reported that in turn they are going to give the hotel stay away to the winner of their photo-naming competition. It looks like this week’s prize is a bit of a hot potato.
This is the photo to which you can submit your captions. They’re accepting new captions up until Sunday June 3rd, after which point they’ll select the top few and let their readers vote. If you want a crack at the hotel room or to take part in the voting, you can find the action on Sinocidal.
May 30th, 2007 Lee
Crown Macau Revisited
So I took another stroll through Crown Macau on Monday night. I was a little unsure of what to expect following the Grand Opening but frankly I was impressed. There were a bunch of punters on the first two floors. We went to the top floor bar to swill a few finely concocted drinks. Fair prices, nice ambience. High ceilings and patterned chandeliers make the upstairs casino and bar comfortable. Colour scheme: greys.
With an effective means of getting people to the casino, it looks like they’ll have a pretty good thing going. I noted that Crown Macau now has shuttle buses waiting in central Macau right outside of Hotel Sintra and Fortuna Japanese Restaurant.
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