Macau is taking a measured but robust approach to the threat of pandemic
Macau depends for its livelihood on attracting as many people as possible from all over the world to enjoy its gaming, leisure and conference facilities. This month’s G2E Asia trade exhibition and conference for the gaming industry at The Venetian Macao, drawing in delegates from all over the globe, is a good example of the place’s international appeal.
But Macau’s greatest strength is also potentially its greatest liability at the time of a global public health alert such as the current swine flu outbreak. Modern air travel in particular provides human pathogens with the equivalent of a rapid transit network that can spread disease from one continent to another within hours.
Macau escaped the worst of the physical threat caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) emergency that hit Hong Kong and southern China in late 2002 and the first half of 2003. Only one case of SARS was confirmed in Macau—that of a 25-year-old British national working as an English teacher thought to have caught it after a one-day visit to Hong Kong. The patient recovered, but the territory suffered economically as panic spread and people stopped travelling in and to the Pearl River Delta Region.
In the first half of 2003, arrivals to Macau by ferry dipped by more than 40% compared to the fourth quarter of 2002. According to Jane’s Airport Review, passenger traffic at Macau International Airport fell by 30% in the same period, down from 4.17 million in 2002 to 2.89 million. Aircraft movements were 13% lower at 2,996.
“Going back in recent history and looking at SARS, the practical threat from something like swine flu is that people simply stop travelling,” says Ciarán Carruthers, Chief Operating Officer of Galaxy StarWorld Hotel and Casino on the Macau peninsula.
“A fall in head count would be a major consequence for all operators,” he adds.
Galaxy leads
Galaxy Entertainment Group (GEG) has been at the forefront of Macau’s measured but active response to the global pandemic alert. The company says it already had an action plan ready to implement even before the Macau government gave advice on recommended measures to combat the swine flu threat.
“It comes down to three principles—education, communication and action,” says Bob Drake, Group Chief Financial Officer for GEG.
“We’re educating everyone including our employees to acquaint them with the facts—how we minimise risk and how we protect everyone. We communicate these key messages through meetings, memos, videos and all kinds of media to make sure we’re getting the message across to everyone including our customers. Finally we need action. It’s about putting a plan of action together and reinforcing the message,” explains Mr Drake.
“We’ve been very proactive at Galaxy,” adds Mr Carruthers. “Within 24 hours of this becoming a global issue, we put a task force together and started disseminating information to our staff on a daily basis. We immediately instituted a temperature check of all the employees coming into the property. That’s an ongoing policy. We dramatically increased staff presence in all public areas of our properties in terms of housekeeping. We have constant cleaning of all high traffic areas such as the buttons on the lifts and the handles on doors and the edges of any tables and chairs. I believe that’s also the case in all the properties in Macau,” he adds.
So far it appears that swine flu—though of great concern to the international medical authorities—is not the aggressive killer that SARS proved to be. Nonetheless, were any kind of panic to set in among the public over the disease it could have as negative an effect on the tourism and gaming industries in Macau as SARS, suggests Mr Carruthers.
Don’t panic
“We want to ensure by our proactive management that we protect our staff and customers and that we prevent any sense of panic,” explains Mr Carruthers.
“There are small things we can do that can potentially make a big difference, such as providing gloves for our valet drivers and ensuring everyone has access to hand sanitisers when they’re coming into a public area or an office area.
“We took measures ahead of any advice from the Macau government, though I’d like to stress that we have been in constant communication with the Health Bureau, the tourism crisis hotline and the [gaming] regulators, the DICJ, from day one,” he adds.
Macau’s Health Bureau has been active in giving advice to all six casino concessionaires on how best to manage their properties to minimise the risk of any outbreak or the transmission of any infection. The Bureau has also organised awareness sessions about H1N1 for the general public at health centres around the territory.
Government support
“The DICJ recently organised a very useful seminar where they got all six concession holders and their respective representatives together in a room with the senior people from the Health Bureau,” says Mr Carruthers.
“They talked everybody through the timeline of this particular virus, what the implications were, and the correct measures to take and outlined the basic strategy of how we should be taking care of our customers and staff,” states Mr Carruthers.
On 18th May, following the swine flu outbreak among high school students in Japan, Macau Health Bureau’s Coordination Group for Preparedness and Response to Influenza Pandemic raised Macau’s pandemic alert from Level 4 to Level 5. Among the advice given under the raised alert level was a warning against holding large-scale social, cultural and sports activities. The Bureau advised that if such events could not be postponed for logistical reasons, they should always be held in well-ventilated venues with good sanitation and washing facilities. The Bureau also recommended that parents should check their children’s body temperature before allowing them to go to school and called for schools to designate teachers or other staff to check students for signs of ill health twice a day.
Border controls
Macau’s first line of defence against swine flu—also known scientifically as H1N1—is immigration arrival halls at border crossing points. There visitors are temperature screened, required to sign a declaration they are in good health and equally importantly instructed to provide details of their mode and time of travel and to furnish a contact telephone number. This would be used in an emergency by the Macau authorities to contact and warn individuals to report for screening should a fellow passenger on a ferry, bus or aircraft subsequently show symptoms of the illness during their time in Macau. This system worked effectively in China and Hong Kong, when all passengers on the flights that originally brought the Mexican H1N1 sufferer to Shanghai and subsequently to Hong Kong were located and, where necessary, isolated.
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Given that more than half of all Macau’s visitors come from Mainland China, the casino operators have a clear interest in helping the authorities to maintain safe cross-border travel.
“We haven’t seen any indication that China is considering closing the border,” says Mr Carruthers.
“It’s more a case of vigilance. The authorities on both sides of the border have been very good in terms of their communication and education of travellers at the crossing points. They have systems in place to follow up any cases that may be of concern,” he states.
Balancing act
Mr Carruthers adds it’s unlikely casino operators will install temperature sensors to screen all their patrons.
“I’m not sure we would institute temperature checks on customers coming through the doors of our properties unless we were instructed to do so by the authorities,” he says.
“Around 95% of the visitors to our properties are coming via border crossing points, so they already go through the sensors at immigration. To put them through sensors every time they go through a door once they’re in Macau I think might be overdoing things,” he explains.
Neither are the Macau authorities planning to organise the kind of mass quarantine seen at the Metropark Hotel in Wanchai, Hong Kong, where the unfortunate Mexican traveller briefly stayed. Given the number of hotel rooms in Macau and the resources available to the government in terms of the emergency and health services, the government has decided at this stage that a mass quarantine would not be practicable.
Ever since SARS, it has been routine for food preparation staff in restaurant chains such as Café de Coral in Hong Kong to wear face-masks. Mr Carruthers says that at StarWorld strict standards are also enforced for kitchen staff.
“The standards of hygiene in our food preparation areas are always extremely high. Now it’s about continuous reinforcement of those very high standards,” he states.
“I think long term some good comes out of these events because people in general become that much more aware of the need to observe good personal hygiene at all times,” he adds.
“We will continue to provide daily updates to management and staff regarding the latest developments on the pandemic globally, regionally and specifically in Macau,” states Mr Carruthers.
Prized assets
“Our most important assets are our customers and our employees. It takes an awful long time to build customer loyalty and the loyalty of your staff. It takes considerable cost and time to train, maintain and develop your employees. It’s in our very best interests to ensure we’re taking the best possible care of those major stakeholders in the business.
“This is not about being seen to do the right thing because it’s expected by the media or by the government. It’s a very necessary part of how we run and maintain our business.
