Venetian Resort And Casino In Macau Tourism Essay
The integrated resort (IR) is a casino resort in Singapore-based. The “integrated resort” is a euphemism for opposing the casino. To date, licenses have been issued to the Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa. This is the first casino in the country since the beginning of 2010 started operation.
Singapore historical point of view, as early as in 1823, gambling was briefly legalized the then British colony of Singapore, but the experiment led to gambling addiction and increased crime, and again within three years of gambling as a criminal offense. Since then, the operation of legal gambling in Singapore is limited to government-run Singapore Pools Lottery, Singapore Jockey Club Jockey. However, in a parliamentary session on April 18, 2005, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced the Cabinet’s decision to develop two casinos and hotels and shopping malls in Marina South and Sentosa. Government claimed that the project aims to enhance Singapore the tourism industry has been facing fierce competition from other destinations in the surrounding areas, especially from the nearby Bangkok and Hong Kong, because also, the casino legalization wake measures, in Singapore. Even closer to home, Malaysia has long been a legitimate casino and theme park, Genting Highlands, This proves that a visitor to Singapore. IRS directly and indirectly creates about 35,000 jobs in Singapore. Except in the casino, the IRS will have other facilities, including hotels, restaurants, shopping and convention center, theaters, museums and theme parks. Industry insiders estimate that investment of U.S. $ 710 million (USD $ 350 million integrated resort Marina Bay (Marina Bay), U.S. $ 360 million in Resorts World).
Whether to set up the casino people in Singapore, there is a great controversy, including several groups, such as belonging to the Muslim and Christian communities, as well as social workers, publicly expressed disapproval casino. The negative impact of gambling on society raised some concerns, citing concerns about encourage more casinos gambling, increased risk of compulsive gambling. The activities of groups that the casino also may lead to adverse often associated with gambling-related activities, including money laundering, usury, and even organized crime.
Acknowledged the shortcomings of the government, with the integrated resorts and the concerns expressed by the public. Singapore Government’s commitment that there will be safeguards to limit the impact of gambling on society. The government will introduce a number of restrictive policies For example; the family members of the hospital local people into the casino patron may prevent him or her to enter the gambling. The Singapore Government has announced a steep entrance fee of S $ 100 each to enter or S $ 2,000 and exclude system each year, for all Singaporeans. In addition, the casino will not be allowed to extend credit to the local residents.
Voting in the six month period, hundreds of thousands of Singaporeans to vote against the casino opened. Singapore Government or approved casino operators, resort debate has also brought the attention of the public discussion in Singapore, the government policy should consider ways and means, and whether they are effective, necessary reforms.
The debate over integrated resorts also brought to the public’s attention a discussion on the methods and ways government policies should be deliberated in Singapore, and whether they were effective or needed reform. This is especially because the political climate is dominated by the People’s Action Party. Low Thia Khiang, the leader of the opposition Workers’ Party, warned in a parliament session:
“The Government sought the opinion of the people but it does not go along with the opinion of the people and it has now made a unilateral decision. Eventually, will it turn out to be a blessing or a curse to our people? We have towait and see. Under the current situation, where a party is dominant and the civil society is very weak, the people cannot sway the Government’s decision on such a matter that concerns the fate of the people. If the Government’s judgmentis wrong, it would lead the nation and our people on to the ‘river of no return’, where the cost would be very real and very heavy.
Contrast under the Macau Venetian tourist resorts. The Venetian is a bar, eating, shopping, accommodation and entertainment in one of the resort. Here large enough to accommodate 90 Boeing 747 aircraft, in other parts of Asia, it is difficult to find unbeatable comprehensive flagship projects, including the gorgeous attractions, more than 3,000 luxury suites and recreational facilities. (Chen X, 2011)Specialties from around the world more than 30 restaurants and more than 350 international brand stores, The Grand Canal Shoppes, the Grand Canal gondola are the most prominent feature of the Venetian. “Venetian” by the U.S. gambling giant Las Vegas Sands to invest $ 2.4 billion to build, covers an area of 110,000 square meters of exhibition venues. The world’s second largest and Asia’s largest casino resort complex the architectural (Li X.D, 2009). The hotel is located in the heart of Macau Cotai Strip, 39-storey hotel, the theme of the Italian city, Venice, around the hotel is filled with Venetian specialties arch bridge, small canals and stone road. Full of Venetian romantic wild exotic enjoy life. In addition to the architectural features, the Venetian resort features a world-class gaming, convention and exhibition, shopping, sports, arts and leisure facilities. The luxurious rooms of more than 60 square meters, the shopping street of the Grand Canal Shoppes at Four Seasons nearly 100,000 square meters and brings together the world famous spa center covers an area of 8,000 square meters, and has superb performances in the performances of Cirque Du Solei.(Jack W.Plunkett,2006)
Macau Venetian resort hotel with 3,000 suites, enough to hold ninety loaded Boeing 747 jumbo jet, is in Asia, the only set of huge facilities, tourist destination, and a variety of excellent equipment in a flagship building. More important is the gaming hall of the hotel has more than 800 table games and other casino difficult advantage. A total of 850 gaming tables, 4,100 slot machines (slot machines), the number of gaming tables around the world.(Dennis R. Harrison 2008)
Why Macau need this integrated resort? The following four factors will outline the reasons.
From political factors, Macao’s stable political environment, and the promulgation of the Macao Basic Law “, provides a legal guarantee for the prosperity and stability of Macao. Macau return to China, the implementation of “one country, two systems”, “Macao people governing Macao” and a high degree of autonomy, maintaining the previous capitalist system and way of life unchanged. (Qian Z.S, 2008)
Macau Government attaches great importance to the development of tourist resorts. Macau Government attaches importance to the development of tourism in addition to performance outside the active development of tourism resources, but also in the following two aspects: The first is to simplify entry procedures. In early 1990, the Macau government to simplify entry procedures for foreign travelers, from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines , residents of Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States and other countries exempt from entry visas, all Hong Kong residents, whether Chinese or foreign, are without a visa for a stay of up to 90 days after the Hong Kong Immigration the Taiwanese tourists just in Hong Kong visa formalities to enter Macau .(Li D, 2011)Followed by the Macau Government to strengthen the propaganda activities by adding the relevant international organizations and the establishment of the Tourism Service. Since 1997, Macau has joined the Asia-Pacific Tourism Association, the East Asia Tourism Association and the World Tourism Organization, Macau still in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Manila, Singapore, Sydney, New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Hawaii, Vancouver , Toronto and other major cities to set up a travel service at various tourism promotional activities, such as distributing promotional materials about Macau, screenings of the movie about Macao scenery and slides, to answer travelers a variety of consulting. At the same time, the Macau government to take advantage of Portugal’s overseas travel representative advocacy work published from time to time to the Macau Government Tourist issued around the world; often advertised in the publications of some international travel organization founded Macao scenery. In the past few years, the legitimacy of the Macau gaming industry do not have the status of a free port, the location and neighbors or neighborhood, so that Macao’s tourism industry to develop rapidly in the coming years, as long as the Macao continue to take advantage of their special status and its economic, religious and righteous and so favorable conditions, with the developed modern city of Hong Kong’s international reputation and rich tourism resources in the Pearl River Delta, and further excavation Macao various potential tourism resources, give full play to gaming industry existing strengths, Macao’s tourism industry there will be greater development.
Macau is a free port, tariff protection; the tax rate is relatively low, living in low tax areas listed in the world. Macao SAR Government has been encouraging foreign investment, in order to attract foreign investment, the introduction of a series of investment incentives scheme, including interest subsidy programs and tax incentives. The interest subsidy scheme implemented aimed at industrial and commercial industries and organizations are encouraged to develop their business by way of interest on subsidized loans, so as to achieve the optimization of the industrial structure, to assist corporate innovation and transformation in order to enhance their competitiveness and business trends modern. Benefited enterprises can enjoy basic subsidy interest rate of 4% per year, depend on corporate investment projects is the development of the local industry, the opportunity to subsidize interest rates to 5% or 6%, the interest subsidies issuance a maximum period of 4 years, from the date of repayment of loans from the beginning. (Tian W.N, 2009)
Tax incentives aimed at investors interested in the region industries contribute to give tax concessions to encourage through increased investment, promote industrial growth and development in the region, especially with regard to production efficiency, technological level improve the manufacture of the new product, and the other caused by the progress of production activities effect. On the financial front, more in 2000 introduced preferential measures to encourage foreign investors to set up offshore services business, in order to attract foreign investment and promote the development of the tertiary industry. IPIM license to comply with the conditions in offshore services company in Macau, the profits can be tax-free. The SAR Government the Macau development offshore services must comply with three conditions: the palaces trading and clearing, the products are not sold to SAR residents, business are not for the Macau market.
Form economic factors, integrated Tourism Resort have brought a lot of foreign exchange earnings to Macau.
Macao’s economic environment in the economic field, the protection of individuals and legal persons in accordance with the law, the SAR government to maintain financial independence, there is no need to be turned over to the central government fiscal revenue, to enact its own economic development policies. To more than eight years after the reunification, the principle of “one country, two systems” in the economic field, effectively and creatively implement. Such as the signing of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement with the Mainland and its supplementary agreement, cooperation with Zhuhai construction of the Zhuhai-Macao Cross Border Industrial Zone, is the premise of “one country”, two different systems of regional economic cooperation initiative.(Shen W.X, 2006)
Macau vigorously develop integrated tourism resort resources, increasing foreign tourists to Macau every five years to step onto a new level, since foreign tourists to Macau in 1965 exceeded the one million mark for the first time.(Smith W, 2007) Almost 1994 visitors has exceeded 800 million. From 1980 to 1994, nearly 82 million of the total number of foreign tourists in Macau, Macau 350,000 population is nearly 240 times. Macau visitors on average stayed for only 0.85 days, but they are expensive in Macau. 1990, the average per person consumption of foreign tourists to 626 palaces, including the highest consumption of Japanese tourists, to 1,785.46 palaces; followed by Taiwan tourists, to 1,087.44 palaces. In 1971, the total spending of foreign tourists in Macau for 900 million palaces in 1981 to $ 2.735 billion palaces, up to about 15 billion palaces in 1994. Tourism has brought hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign exchange earnings in Macau.
For the Venetian Macao which is a very successful year in 2007. Although, within the opening of the new Lisboa hotel and Crown hotel during the year, greatly increasing the market competitiveness, a decline in net income. The gambling receipts and other income had increased. The Venetian Macao has a strong competitive. In 2007 The Venetian Macao also implemented a number of strategic resolutions to increase the overall operational efficiency. For the Venetian Macao was a challenging in 2008. From June 2008, China has increasingly tightened the free exercise of policy. This restriction is still in force until the end of the year. The project financing was limited by the global credit crunch. This is also beginning to affect the gaming industry. For Venetian the third and fourth quarters of 2008, the financial position was adversely. The net income was continued to decline. In order for the weak revenue trends, the management has taken several important measures.(Jian Q, 2008) First, the company will actively explore other Asian gaming markets to seek new business. Second, the company works closely with Cotai Jet Co. (Susan S ,1997)Ltd to increase visitors in the promotion strategy. Finally, they had improved overall operational efficiency and promote cost savings. These measures were still quite successful. We can see that the gambling receipts and other income growth. The company’s performance was better in 2009. Mainly due to the Asian economy from the global economic crisis began, and shadow of swine flu recovery. Visa restriction for Mainland China has also been relaxed. So that the gaming industry’s Market was expansion. Revenue fell in the past 2 years have been picked up. Overall, the company’s financial condition and development prospects are bright.(Wong T.C, 2008)
From Social factors, integrated tourism resort provides a lot of employment opportunities in Macau.(Dai A.Q, 2009)
The development of integrated tourism resort industry needs some service industries to match, such as hotels, restaurants, shops and a variety of recreational facilities. The number of the employed population in Macao directly engaged in hotels, travel agencies, restaurants and other tourism-related work, more than 40,000 people, accounting for about 20% of total employment and 12% of the total population of Macau, where casino employees amounted to 10,000 come to the restaurant employs nearly 5,000 people, 6,000 hotel employees, travel goods industry employs nearly 2,000 people, travel agencies and more than 1,000 employees, those employed to the Macau Government attaches importance to the development of tourism beneficiaries.
Promoting Macau’s infrastructure construction and economic development of integrated tourism resort.(Cologne Berg, 2009)
Macau Government STDM signed the franchise contract requires the the STDM company to bear the economic, social, cultural, and infrastructure construction and funding obligations, such as the construction of a luxury hotel; subsidized electricity, dock, sea, pier, reclamation projects, schools and residential construction; construction of Article Macau-Taiga Bridge, the airport, the deepwater port; establishment of a special fund. In addition, it also provides for STDM 1964 per year payable prosperity fees shall not be less than 300,000 palaces in 1972 increased to 1.25 million palaces. Construction and economic development of Macau’s infrastructure, which has played a great role in promoting.(Zhen T.Q, 2004)
From environmental factors: Venetian resort for the environmental impact lies in three aspects, the first is the water quality impacts: very large sewage discharge tube and swimming pool of the resort’s spa. Since the hotel is changing the water frequently, the the travelers very large amount of water applications, the waste of water resources is also inevitable.
The second aspect is that the noise impact, the resort’s noise impact the lives of local residents. Often due to some of the facilities within the integrated resort is open 24 hours for passengers, it will affect the normal daily routine of life of the residents of the integrated resort around.
The third aspect is that light impact, Venetian casino is open 24 hours, 24-hour power supply to tourists. The light 24 hours affect the surrounding local Macau residents, in particular, to the need to sleep at night time, many residents of the surrounding dissatisfied with the casino lights too bright that they can not sleep.
The operating objective of Venetian in next 5-10 years is make 60% profit from exhibition, retail and other business that not gamble. But its last year one quarterly report shows, its income that expect bets increase 10 million from 2009, but only has 11.2% of all income. So Venetian must strive to develop its entertainment business expect bets, make them get more profit. In the future, the second phase project of Cotai Strip is on construction, when it finish, the marketing share and profit of Venetian will increase rapidly, and its entertainment business will expand. At that time, its competitive advantage will increase and its position in Macau economy and casino industry will very important.
