Macau is an exciting 'new' city that is blooming right now. Macau has long established itself within the gaming industry in Asia and now it's appropriate that it looks to broaden its tourism model to expand its economy. In the next few years, Macau would have the strengths in premium dining and accommodation, shopping, arts and entertainment and, of course, gaming.

With its positioning as Asia's Las Vegas, it will promote a more well-rounded tourism model that will include more business visitors and families.

While it might not have the best of a particular aspect of tourism, it offers an all-in-one (leisure, lifestyle and tourism) city which many other cities do not offer.

With the inherent traffic between Hong Kong, China and Macau (there are already many travellers for business and leisure) in addition to its focus to attract more visitors from Asia, we see the advantage to position Wine and Gourmet Asia (WGA) in Macau to attract this target group and grow this show into a regional event in Asia.

It is projected that the exhibition revenues in Macau will hit more than 300 million patacas (and exceed 600 million patacas in 2010).

Our success with the first edition of Wine and Gourmet Asia last year shows that Macau is ready to host large-scale exhibitions with strong supporting programmes. WGA 2007 registered 7,300 participants, 55 per cent of which were from outside Macau.

Can anything be done to improve conditions for the industry?

Macau is a relatively new location for the MICE industry. It is very exciting but it is not on the map of many people on the other side of the world. This means that we have to do extensive marketing and promotional activities for the events. However, new hotels like The Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel also do a lot of marketing for their establishments and the government agencies like Macau Government Tourist Office and the Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute are also marketing different aspects of Macau to the rest of the world. The wine tax is another concern for wine-related events organisers. Hong Kong removed its wine tax in February and it is expected that Macau will do the same for beer, wine and liquor which contains less than 30 per cent alcohol. Macau will then have a level playing field against Hong Kong for the wines event market.

Since April, Macau has imposed a freeze on its gaming industry in an effort to check runaway growth that threatens the city's economic and social stability. The government will not grant more land for casino development. Macau's casino gambling revenue rose 55 per cent in the first six months of the year, accelerating from 47 per cent growth in 2007.

However, the city's transportation infrastructure is underdeveloped, with older ferry terminals and proposed sky-rails not yet built, which diminishes Macau's appeal as a quick getaway. With the current curb on casino development, it is a window for the supporting transportation infrastructure to be spruced up to match the visitor arrivals. Soft infrastructure such as a skilled workforce trained outside the casinos can be improved to catch up with the rest of the developments.

If the government wants to accelerate Macau's position as the new, vibrant, appealing and exciting destination for the international MICE industry in Asia, it cannot afford to neglect hard or soft infrastructure in this sector. The Macau Government Tourist Office has shown its commitment to nurturing a larger business events industry in Macau by opening the Macau Business Tourism Centre this year, and events organisers like us look forward to more initiatives from the authorities.

How firmly entrenched is Koelnmesse in Macau; would the company have still been operating there if not for the deregulation of the casino sector?

What Koelnmesse does is to help build a trade and networking platform for businesses to talk to each other, suppliers to meet distributors and vice versa. The hospitality industry in Asia, and particularly Macau, is growing rapidly, so there is a demand for such products and services.

The growing importance of the MICE industry in Macau, with its new developments and government support, is another reason why we have selected Macau for our premier niche event for the hotel and food services, food and beverage, wine and spirits industry.

Koelnmesse has more than 80 years of history and has since established itself as a leading events organiser in the world. Our established events in Cologne, Germany and Asia prove that we have the resources and capability to run world-class events and this is what we can contribute to the MICE industry in Macau. Wine and Gourmet Asia is situated in Macau and will stay here.

What can the events industry do in terms of training and the provision of jobs? How vital it is to have a skilled and knowledgeable workforce?

Every event requires immense manpower from all aspects - from the contractors who build the booths, the transport operators who ferry the participants, to the temporary staff who take care of the booth receptions, to the translators who help bridge communication between different language speakers. With more events being held in the city, there will be increased demand for contracting and event-management services.

In addition, the Hospitality Trends Forum, which is a fixture on the supporting programme of Wine and Gourmet Asia, helps in promoting awareness of the hospitality industry. There is currently a shortage of trained hospitality professionals as the industry in Asia grows rapidly; skill development is crucial.

Events such as the Hospitality Trends Forum bring in knowledge from overseas who share their experience and can help in training the local workforce.

Wine and Gourmet Asia also works with the local associations and institutes including China Hong Kong Bartenders Association, Macau Institute For Tourism Studies, Macau Culinary Association to organise competitions, such as the Asian Cocktail Championship, MORS Gold Pin Competition and the Macau Culinary Alliance Winning Showpiece Display. Such competitions cultivate greater awareness and appreciation and improve the skills of the Macau workforce.