Macao’s Development
Hakuna matata, Macao!
By Huang Xiangyang (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-16 13:01
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It is a dazzle of light and color as one strolls along the tropical tree-lined boundaries of the grand Performance Lake.
Shooters and nozzles eject into the air streams of water, which dance to both classical and popular music. Bursts of flame, the effect of pyrotechnics, erupt from beneath the surface of the Lake. There is a fleeting feeling of intense heat, quickly followed by a sense of passion, and pure bliss.
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Not far from Wynn resorts, with its splendid performance lake, are other posh casinos - Sands, StarWorld, Grand Lisboa, MGM Grand Macao and The Venetian - that are open round-the-clock, luring visitors with their endless array of slot machines, baccarat tables and other games of chance.
Dame Luck is what brings most tourists to this gambling paradise in hopes their stars will twinkle and make their wallets bulge.
This year, however, there has been a slight decrease in the number of tourists, but those who do visit are staying longer in hotels, which together offer more than 20,000 rooms, says Joao Manuel Costa Antunes, director of Macao's Tourist Office.
No trace of the global financial crisis can be seen here - growth rate is forecast to increase by 3-4 percent, beating an earlier estimate of a 2-percent decline.
In short, it has never been this good.
The situation is in sharp contrast to the first years after this former Portuguese colony was handed over to the mainland on Dec 20, 1999. Then, visitors to Macao were parsimonious, bringing their own food and not renting rooms.
As a special administrative region of the motherland now, Macao "is much more immune to the financial crisis", Antunes says.
Macao is strategically located - at the southwestern tip of the Pearl River Delta. That is a boon to mainlanders who can, within hours, fly in from just about anywhere.
The real boost to tourism however came after 2003 when the central government loosened travel restrictions. The individual travelers' scheme allowed mainlanders to visit Macao on their own instead of in groups.
Ever since, Macao's economy has been closely tied to that of the mainland.
More than 32 million mainlanders have toured Macao so far, each spending on average 3,000 yuan, or $440, not including the money they gambled away.
Of the 23 million who visited Macao last year, more than half were from the mainland - and many ended up gambling at its famed casinos.
In fact, its gaming expense jumped seven-fold last year from what it was in 1999, the Tourist Office records showed.
Macao's gaming industry grew exponentially after it was liberalized in 2002 and licenses were granted to Wynn resorts, Galaxy-Las Vegas Sands and the local Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM).
Business was so good that Sands Macao, the first American-owned and operated casino in the city, reportedly recouped its investment with its first-year profits.
Now, 33 casinos operate under 6 licenses and sub-licenses.
Macao's outgoing Chief Executive, Edmund Ho describes the industry as the "cash economy" whose push has been felt across sectors within a short period.
"The industry has undergone fundamental changes, both in terms of quantity and quality," says Ieong Wan Chong, director of the One Country Two Systems Research Center.
Macao's transformation after the handover has been "unprecedented", Ieong says.
Its gross domestic product has increased by more than 15 percent each year over the last ten years; population has grown by 27 percent and territory widened 38 percent. "You don't see such things happen anywhere else in this world, do you?"
