Macau was a tale of two cities for visitors to a pair of high-profile international events in June.
Bollywood came to Cotai for the Indian International Film Awards (IIFA) at the Venetian Macao last month. Hundreds of overseas media members joined thousands of fans from around the world for the event. In addition to the film events, IIFA organizers, the Venetian Macau, and the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) took about 150 media members and 30 VIPs on tours of Macau’s historic centre, the city’s unique edge in the global tourism sweepstakes.
“As this is their first time to Macau, it is good to show them around [to see that] Macau is a city mixed of East and West, world heritage and modern buildings, multiple nationalities, cultures and religions,” Venetian Macao public relations manager Mabel Wu explained. Local tours including the city’s UNESCO World Heritage area are an option that Venetian Macao offers to all event organizers, Wu said. “We work closely with Macao SAR Government and help put Macao on the global map of tourism.” It may just be coincidence, but following IIFA the Indian press was full of positive stories about Macau as a destination on a diverse range of subjects.
A week earlier, the City of Dreams (COD) integrated resort opening also attracted hundreds of international media and guests. Project developer Melco Crown Entertainment is a joint venture featuring Macau’s Lawrence Ho and Australia’s James Packer, both sons of legendary moguls, and their company is listed on New York’s Nasdaq stock exchange. But COD and MGTO didn’t provide tours or facilitation for opening celebration attendees, some of whom stayed two nights for the event, to get off the property and see Macau’s historic centre or any other local delights.
Instead of uncovering the full range of Macau’s attractions during her visit, one editor from Singapore asked, “Is there anything here except hotels and apartment buildings?” This editor and a colleague planned to stay in Macau for four days after the COD opening to attend the Global Gaming Exposition but left early because they were bored. They knew about historic Macau and could have jumped in a taxi to get there, but the difficulty of making the trip from Cotai was more than these visitors could handle.
Even though Macau is small, Cotai hotels can feel isolated from the rest of the city. The thousands of guests staying in Cotai every day include a high percentage of visitors from beyond greater China, areas that represent Macau’s greatest opportunities for expanding its numbers and types of visitors beyond the typical day trippers to multi-day vacationers seeking diverse entertainment and leisure options. Charming them with historic Macau (and even nearby Old Taipa) and filling their scrapbook (and Facebook) pages with photos of St Paul’s and Senado Square would likely build word of mouth buzz and return visits.
MGTO thought facilitating IIFA guests’ tours of historic Macau was a good idea, but it rejected the idea of offering similar assistance to ordinarily guests with special bus service linking Cotai hotels with the historic centre of Macau. “As the ‘Historic Center of Macau’ is situated at the city center of Macau, it can be easily accessed with the public transportation network,” MGTO said in a statement to Macau Business.
But MGTO’s travel suggestions from Cotai to Macau’s heart and soul aren’t that convenient for visitors. Transmac’s bus 26A stops at the Macau University of Science and Technology on the fringe of Cotai. From the Venetian, that’s a short cab ride, or several hundred meters walk, including crossing the main Cotai road. (Crossing any street in Cotai is a challenge.) The alternative route is TCM bus 25X which stops a block from the Venetian’s bus entrance in front of the Galaxy Mega Resort construction site, and is a long walk from City of Dreams. Using the 25X also requires changing to the number 10 bus at the Hotel Lisboa.
Both suggested routes bring visitors to Avenida Almedia Ribeiro near Senado Square. The price is just MOP4.20 (US$0.53) for routes between Cotai and the Macau peninsula and another MOP3.20 for bus number 10. The price to Macau’s tourism sector in lost opportunities for making winning impressions on visitors could run much higher.

by: Muhammad Cohen