Shopping Wins First

It must have been a gamble for luxury brands like Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Yves Saint Laurent to establish brick and mortar shops in so many casinos in Macau but it seems that this bet may have paid off. According to the latest report from the Tourism Research Centre of the Institute for Tourism Studies in Macau released last Friday, shopping is currently the most common reason for visiting our city.
Cuisine and visiting World Heritage attractions were second and third in the report followed by gambling in fourth place. It’s not surprising to hear that shopping is attracting tourists to the city, especially with the saturation of our market. You simply don’t have to look far from your hotel room to discover a gold mine of shopping destinations. Because the gaming areas of casinos are often protected by a fortress of shopping malls, a maze of sorts, it’s not earthshaking to learn that tourists may decide that purchasing a new designer handbag or watch could be a safer bet because you return home with an actual product instead of losing the money on an unfortunate card or slot bet.
The interesting part of the study is that shopping is the catalyst for tourists to visit Macau. In 2015, HSBC managing director Ewan Rambourg said, “Japanese people used to purchase luxury products to fit in whereas the Chinese are buying goods to stand out.”
Where better for Chinese tourists to find luxury goods that stand out than in Macau? In the Peninsula’s 36 casinos, most have a variety of shopping outlets and many host luxury stores. Macau is truly a one-stop shop for tourists seeking high fashion or high-end goods. Our city’s luxury boutiques dwarf their Hong Kong counterparts in scale, profitability and range of exclusive products.
In the Four Seasons Shoppes alone, customers can visit more than 700 prestigious brands in one location. Across the street, The Venetian and adjacent City of Dreams offer similar shopping delights and this is just a small piece of the Cotai Strip, not all of Macau.
As the number of tourists visiting Macau continues to decline and casinos report decreased profits, it has yet to be seen if our draw of shoppers will lead to a profitable year for retailers. We can; however, feel confident that as we continue to search for the brand identity of Macau, successfully establishing ourselves as a shopping Mecca or luxury goods haven is a great place to start.