City emerges as big player in industry

A year after the 3,000-room Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel opened on the Cotai Strip - and the completion of several tourism and entertainment facilities - Macau has further created favourable conditions for meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE).

Macau now has the facilities to tap bigger groups and MICE. The Venetian Macao's 100,000-square-metre convention space gave the city's capacity a big boost, as it was specially designed to cater for corporate meetings, conventions, incentives and international exhibitions.

Last year was a record year for Macau which hosted 391 MICE events, up by 8.6 per cent over the previous year, while the total number of participants, including locals, stood at 117,860, representing a growth rate of 106.5 per cent. According to the International Congress and Convention Association, Macau was ranked 16th within the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions, attracting 11 international association conferences last year. It hosted only two international conferences in 2004.

'Although Macau is starting from a low base, these figures are indicative of the growing interest and capacity in Macau for staging international conferences and events,' said a spokeswoman for the Macau Government Tourist Office. 'The segments that have done well in Macau are the corporate meetings and incentives as they have much shorter lead times than the larger international convention and exhibition market. Regional association conferences also have short to medium lead times and are a primary target for Macau.'

While these smaller events are an important segment for Macau, efforts are being made to develop as many exhibition and international association facilities as the city can handle. However, these segments have much longer lead times.

The tourist office's medium- and long-term plan is to place more emphasis on the regional association market as Macau is now considered integral to the Asia rotation of these events. 'Macau now has a greater capacity to accommodate regional association meetings. The same applies to the international conference market which has been a segment Macau has, until recently, not been able to target due to its limited capacity and facilities in the past,' the spokeswoman said.