Inside Asian Gaming

Five-Year Plan that it will be dedicating signif- icant capital for infrastructure development to enhance inbound and outbound tourism. All of these projects will allow a greater proportion of the population to come to Ma- cau,certainly greater than currently available. However, with most of these projects sched- uled for completion by 2010, we believe that in the near term, infrastructure will be a con- straining factor for growth of Macau’s tour- ism industry. Some of the projects slated by the Chi- nese government include: • Railways: 17,000km of passenger railway lines from Beijing to Guangzhou to Shen- zhen, Zhengzhou to Xian, and Shijiazhuang to Taiyuan. China will build the high-speed railway between Beijing and Shanghai. • China will build 1,000km of light rail lines from Tianjin to Hebei, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta. • Highways: The nationwide highway network will be completed by ensuring the following cities are linked from start to fin- ish with new, high-speed highways: Beijing to Shanghai, Beijing to Fuzhou, and Beijing to Hong Kong and Macau. China will build village-to-village roads and provincial level he Macau government has worked increasingly well to expand the capacity of each of its immigration gateways, in order to increase the capacity to bring people into the city. For instance, the Gongbei Gateway was upgraded in early 2006 and can now accommodate more than 200,000 visitors daily. In late 2007/early 2008, a second ferry terminal will be opened in Taipa to increase capacity for tourists wanting to enter in order to go to Cotai. But while the border point immigration gates have been upgraded, infrastructure within Macau remains a constraint. Ma- cau has not prepared well for the explosive growth in tourism within its borders, and this could hinder movement of tourists within the city. Specifically, we have looked at two statis- tics: Population per taxi and total vehicles per km of road in Macau. On both metrics,Macau registers significantly worse ratios than Sin- gapore or Hong Kong. To make things more Travel time by rail from Chinese provinces into Macau Source: China Highlights & Macquarie Research, June 2007 MACAU’S INFRASTRUCTURE T Expansion of Macau International Airport expected by 2015 Source: Macau International Airport & Macquarie Research, May 2007 trunk roads. By 2010, China will have 2.3m km of new county and provincial roads,which will include 65,000km of high-speed highways. • Airports: The Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou airports will be expanded. Over- all, China’s 11th Five-Year Plan will see the to- tal number of airports increase from 142 to 186. Most of the new airports will be built in secondary provincial cities. Additional airline capacity will also come on-stream with the opening of Air Asia Express. This discount airline, currently in partnership with Air Macau, Shun Tak and CNAC (China National Aviation Corpo- ration), will further mobilise tourists from farther away provinces. 15