Inside Asian Gaming

October 2009 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 45 Briefs Meetings and conferences accounted for 328 events (95% of total).Therewere also 19 exhibitions.The total number of participants at the recorded events (57,423) decreased by 63%, compared to the first quarter of the year. The average duration of the MICE events also fell from 2.2 days in the previous quarter to 1.8 days. The average duration of exhibitions was 3.4 days, attracting 25,376 attendees (44% of total). The average duration of meetings/conferences was 1.8 days, with 32,047 participants. Most MICE events were for commerce, trade and management (105), with tourism and culture (60) and education and training (52) making up the rest. Analysed by type, most of the events were corporatemeetings (131), associationmeetings (94) and government meetings (47). There were 204 MICE events held in hotels, of which 194 were meetings/conferences and ten exhibitions, drawing a total of 28,546 participants. Participants to 194 meetings /conferences totalled 16,900 (59% of total). There were 11,646 attendees for the ten exhibitions. Visitors up Information from DSEC—Macau’s Statistics and Census Service— indicate visitor arrivals for August 2009 increased by 6.4% year-on-year to 2,065,336. Analysed by place of residence, visitors from Mainland China increased by 8.9% year-on-year to 1,050,357 (50.9% of visitor arrivals), with 499,448 travelling to Macau under the Individual Visit Scheme, down by 15.3% from August 2008 (589,575). Visitors from Hong Kong (666,700); Taiwan (125,931); and Japan (37,505) rose by 2.9%, 12.6% and 27.1% respectively. Those from the Republic of Korea (25,727) and Malaysia (21,137) decreased by 15.4% and 13.9%. Same-day visitors (1,042,673) accounted for 50.5% of visitor arrivals, with 550,129 coming from Mainland China. Cumulative visitor arrivals totalled 14,191,418 in the first eight months of 2009, down by 9.6% year-on-year. Visitors from Mainland China (7,030,457); Hong Kong (4,574,626); Taiwan (860,662); and Malaysia (199,952) fell by 14.5%, 1.6%, 4.2% and 28.7% respectively. Those from Japan (232,250) registered an increase of 4.6%. The cumulative number of same-day visitors accounted for 53.1% of total visitor arrivals, at 7,536,321. Analysed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by sea totalled 5,692,080 in the first eight months of 2009, down by 7.3% year-on- year. The numbers arriving at the Outer Harbour decreased by 24.6% to 3,950,737, while those arriving at the Provisional Ferry Terminal in Taipa surged by 143.8% to 1,555,490. Visitor arrivals by land dropped by 11.7% year-on-year to 7,464,425 in the first eight months of 2009; those arriving through the Border Gate totalled 6,932,085 and the majority were visitors from Mainland China (76.8%) and Hong Kong (15.1%). Visitor arrivals by air went downby 7.2%year-on-year to 1,034,913 in the first eight months of 2009. Visitors arriving at the Macau International Airport fell by 7.1% to 1,014,085, with the majority coming from Taiwan (39.4%), Mainland China (24.5%), Malaysia (7.7%) and Thailand (7.0%). Macau gets a Grand Hyatt Grand Hyatt Macau opened its doors to the public, marking the next phase of development at City of Dreams, the integrated urban entertainment resort developed by Melco Crown Entertainment Limited. Grand Hyatt Macau is focused on the leisure customer and business traveller.  The property, with its distinctive twin-tower architecture, adds 791 guest rooms to City of Dreams and each new room enjoys spectacular views over the City of Dreams resort or the west bank of the Pearl River.   “Grand Hyatt Macau’s approximately 100,000 sq. ft of ballroom and business meeting space reinforces City of Dreams’ proposition as a multi-stay destination for a wide range of visitors,” said Mr. Greg Hawkins, President of City of Dreams. “Our collaboration with the internationally recognized Hyatt brand and the opening of Grand Hyatt Macau extends the City of Dreams offering to both business and leisure traveller sectors as it establishes itself as one of Macau’s most sophisticated luxury conference and special events venues.”   “We feel Grand Hyatt Macau reflects the energy and exciting Sino-Portuguese cultural fusion that makes Macau unique, and a dynamic destination for both individual leisure travellers and MICE groups,” says Mr. Paul Kwok, General Manager of Grand Hyatt Macau. “Given the sheer scale, variety and unique nature of its event venues alongside the exciting entertainment available at City of Dreams—all of which can be handled through one billing account—Grand Hyatt Macau is a truly integrated destination, and we feel confident that it will be a big attraction to MICE organizers.”  The Grand Hyatt Macau lobby