Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming August 2016 8 Cover Story since we first opened the doors of The Venetian Macao in 2007,” Sands China Vice President of Marketing, Scott Messinger, says. SJM Executive Director Angela Leong proposed a theme park featuring an indoor beach adjacent to the SJM Palace site in Cotai on land that she controls individually. Galaxy Macau’s phase two expanded its Grand Resort Deck, adding a river ride, water slides and an exclusive kids’ island to the wave pool and white sand beach. The resort’s next phases will include a “special and high tech” theme park, Galaxy Chairman Lui Che Woo says, though the company hasn’t provided further details. “A theme park could be a sweet spot for Galaxy – the family spends the morning at the theme park and afternoon at the pool. It gives them a tool kit to keep people on the property all day,” adds Union Gaming Securities Asia Managing Partner, Grant Govertsen. “There’s a bunch of people next door [at Venetian, What happened in Vegas … Las Vegas tried family entertainment and theme parks in the early 1990s with limited success. One expert who witnessed the rise and fall of the trend thinks what happened in Vegas should guide the way for Macau. As a marketing executive on the Vegas Strip, Global Market Advisors Senior Partner Andrew Klebanow had a ringside seat to the By Muhammad Cohen 1993 openings of MGM Grand with its Grand Adventures theme park (plus a Wizard of Oz themed casino) and MGM’s Egyptian pyramid Luxor with a number of family attractions, including a Nile River Tour ride. Both properties shifted gears in short order, demolishing attractions and converting the “underperforming real estate” into more rooms. But “Garden variety” family entertainment offerings in Las Vegas weren’t just doomed by mediocrity – they also failed to recognize the fact that people looking for family entertainment “are a different kind of customer than those that patronize casinos.” Nevertheless, The Innovation Group’s Michael Zhu is confident Asia will be a different story. “We believe family entertainment will be a better idea in Asia than in Las Vegas,” he says, noting the variety and quality of family attractions at Asia’s integrated resorts already outstrip the first generation of Las Vegas offerings. Macau should also benefit from the fact that diversification away from gaming aligns with government objectives. And there is a different level of competition in Asia when compared to the Vegas experiment. By having theme parks and other family entertainment amenities, casino resorts will be able to diversify their offerings to capture a broader range of customers, various age groups, distinctive preferences and more.” Global Market Advisors’ Andrew Klebanow