Sands China Executive Director, President and COO, Dr Wilfred Wong, says that the current border crossing facility between Macau and mainland China is holding the city back from its full potential.
Speaking on a panel at G2E Asia this week examining the transformation of Macau into the global gaming powerhouse it is today, Dr Wong said that the number of people crossing from China into Macau via the border gate could possibly double if better access was provided, stating, “A better border crossing facility would certainly improve the future for Macau.
“At the moment the border is a bottleneck and a deterrent for many people,” he said. “If we were to open that up I can see visitation doubling.”
According to latest figures releases by the Statistics and Census Service, the number of visitors arriving through the border gate in March 2018 grew 8.5% year-on-year to 1.34 million.
Dr Wong noted that hotel supply remained another ongoing concern for Macau which might prevent any significant uptick in the number of arrivals through the border gate, but that “these are important questions we need to ask for Macau going forward.”
Speaking on the same panel as Dr Wong, Wynn Macau’s non-executive Chairman and the man who developed Hong Kong’s Lan Kwai Fong entertainment district, Allan Zeman, predicted that the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge would be a “game changer” for Macau in its quest to become a World Center of Tourism and Leisure.
“We’ve already seen Macau transform itself but the new bridge between Hong Kong and Macau will be a game changer as well,” he said, pointing to the MICE industry as the key sector likely to enjoy significant benefit.
“When we talk about conventions, Macau has improved in this area but at the moment the convention center in Hong Kong is full. You can’t book an event there because it is booked out. But when you have a half hour bridge trip, the possibilities for Macau and Hong Kong to work together will be endless.
“My prediction is that Macau and Hong Kong will become like Hong Kong and Kowloon after they built the tunnel between them. They joined up.
“Macau and Hong Kong will become brother and sister and so you’ll then start to see integration between both cities. In the past, it has been difficult getting people on the ferry and then offloading them. The bridge will change all of that.”
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