Inside Asian Gaming

October 2011 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 33 A side from physical capacity of the ports, there are political considerations that come intoplaywhen it comes to competition on the Hong Kong-Macau route. The port infrastructure in downtown Hong Kong and in downtown Macau was originally designed to accommodate TurboJet, not developed as amunicipal facility tobe sharedwithmultiple carriers—in the manner of an airport. That means if a new entrant comes to the ferry market, it is effectively stepping into Shun Tak/STDM ‘territory’. It has to accept the management practices and priorities of those companies—knowing that it will not be given priority over ‘family’. That has some important implications when it comes to attempting to plan services on a strategic basis for the good of the whole tourism market. The story of Las Vegas Sands’ attempts to open the ferry market to more competition is a good example. At almost every step, Sheldon Adelson and his management team at LVS faced resistance from local interests. LVS understood from the beginning of its entry to the Macau gaming market that the ties between Shun Tak and the casino operator SJM meant Shun Tak had no commercial interest in delivering passengers to SJM’s rival, The Venetian on Cotai. So Mr Adelson had to do it himself. The first stage was to get a new ferry terminal opened at Taipa. To its credit, the Macau government did that, and said that—unlike with the downtown ferry harbour—no one operator would be allowed to dominate it. This didn’t go down well with Shun Tak. Pansy Ho, in her role as managing director, Feature Full throttle?—Journeys aboard TurboJet and its rivals are getting longer Keeping It in the Family Competition is a state of mind, not just a word