The move to nearly double the current 150,000m2 of meeting space was announced to the Australian market at the Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event (AIME) by Sands Resorts Macao’s vice president of sales, Stephanie Tanpure.
Already Macao’s largest meetings and events operator, Sands Resorts includes 10 hotels in Macao with more than 12,000 hotel rooms.
The move to expand its business event capability is in line with plans announced last November by the government of Macao to broaden its tourism focus to entice more of the convention and incentive market in the Asia Pacific.
Sands already boasts two large arenas in Cotai – one holds 15,000 at The Venetian, the other at its newest hotel, The Londoner, an all-suite property, holds 6,000. In addition, Tanpure said the group also has three theatres and the largest pillarless hall in Asia.
The Venetian’s arena space is currently being refurbished and will be completed as the latest state-of-the-art venue by the end of 2024.
While full details of the new convention centre space are yet to be announced, Tanpure confirmed it would be in addition to the current convention centre.
Tanpure, an Australian who has been in Macao for the past 12 years, said that since the sale of the company’s Las Vegas properties, the main focus had shifted to Macao. Sands also owns the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
As well as hosting meetings, Tanpure said the arenas would host international entertainment and sporting events.
“During COVID we developed a hybrid studio but we are finding that more and more of our MICE customers are continuing to use this space to boost their attendance numbers. We did think it was going to be relatively short-lived coming out of COVID but interestingly we are finding our international clients starting to come back to the region are able to drive additional delegate numbers.”
She said that while Macao was a lot more family-friendly, the international perception has been that Macao was a gaming market, but now “not only Sands, but also Macao, is really investing a lot of effort on diversification and changing the perception away from Asia’s Las Vegas”.
Health and wellness was more of a focus now, including sound meditation programs which are being offered to MICE groups, she said.
“A lot of people say, ‘you’re Sands, you’ve got The Venetian, you are just used to huge groups like 5,000 people’, but our bread and butter is 150 to 200 people. And with The Londoner on board, we are starting to see those executive groups of 15 to 20 people that are demanding a service level that is in very few locations.”
Macao is a 30km2 cluster of islands with a 400-year Portuguese history, but has always remained a special administrative region of mainland China.
It is now less than one hour to Hong Kong by the 55km Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge, built at a cost of US$18.8 billion. Ferries between Hong Kong and Macao take approximately an hour.
“It is now quicker on a Friday night to get from Hong Kong International Airport to Macao than to get from Hong Kong International Airport to Hong Kong island with the traffic in Hong Kong,” said Tanpure.
“Hong Kong International Airport is effectively our second gateway. It’s a huge game changer and we are seeing our Japanese market coming through Hong Kong, and our Indian, Australian, US and European market,” she said, adding that some US visitors could fly via Taipei into Macao’s own airport.
Tanpure said the latest development to smooth departures for visitors from March 1 was the ability to check-in for flights, including luggage, from hotels in Macao. Luggage will then be tagged through to its destination and transported to the airport, including clearing customs, independently of the traveller.
micenet amended this article on April 26, 2024 to correct previously inaccurate details about the additional meeting space planned for The Venetian Macao.
