Macau
Macau, more than the Las Vegas of Asia
Stephanie Selesnick rolls the MICE dice for Macau in the Greater Bay Area
acau, a Special
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Administrative Region( SAR) of China became a Portuguese colony 500 years ago, transitioning to a Chinese SAR in December 1999. The city has 600,000 + residents. It’ s located on the Pearl River Delta( also known as the Greater Bay Area – GBA) across the South China Sea from Hong Kong.
Like Hong Kong, no visa is required from over 80 countries and regions. It’ s about a one-hour ferry from Hong Kong, a 45-minute drive on the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai Bridge, or via its own airport( MFM). The Hong Kong airport has buses departing regularly across the Bridge as well.
Macau is the only place in China where one can legally gamble. Gaming is a huge economic driver – about 80 % of the casinos, hotels, and integrated resorts’ income is derived from gaming. Tourism in the number one business in the SAR.
According to Synthia Chan( pictured), Council chairperson, Macau Trade & Fair Association, the city’ s MICE industry is growing, overtaking 2019( pre-Covid) numbers. The first half of 2025 is up 29 % year-over-year with a total of 918 events taking place this year.
Basics The Cotai Strip, built on reclaimed land, opened in 2019 and is home to six integrated resorts, each featuring casinos, multiple( luxury) hotels, meeting spaces, restaurants and bars, retail shops, spas, pools, and more. There are 47,000 hotel rooms split
between the integrated resorts, hotel-casinos, and hotels in Old Town Macau and the Cotai Strip.
The four largest MICE facilities are: The Venetian Cotai Expo International Convention Center, the Galaxy International Convention Center and Arena, Fisherman’ s Wharf Convention & Exhibition Centre, and the Macau Tower Convention & Entertainment Center.
Geographically, 87 million people live in the GBA which includes Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Hong Kong, Macau and six other Chinese mega-cities.
The Future The Commerce and Investment Promotion Institute( IPIM) is pursuing a 4-point initiative to grow different sectors called“ 1 Plus 4”. They are: Tourism + Sports Tourism + Health Tourism + IT( Tech) Tourism + MICE
Chan explains the government is strategically pursuing events in each of these above-named sectors. For event organisers, IPIM provides one-stop MICE support for events going out to bid. Additionally, the agency may offer up financial support not to exceed 3 million Patacas( US $ 375,000) for qualified events.
Upcoming events in Q4 include the MIF( Macau International Fair), C-PLPEX( the China Portuguese- Speaking Countries Economic & Trade Expo, Macau), the NBA( hosting at least one basketball game), The National Games( sporting event), and The Global Artificial Intelligence Machine’ s Electronic Expo.
With the MICE sector growing and the need for an educated workforce to supply that growth, the government began the MICE Talent Cultivation Programme, partnering with some industry associations to bring programmes and instructors from UFI( Venue Management School and Exhibition Management School), ICCA( Skills), and IAEE( CEM-China).
Chan adds:“ There are many kinds of events that would be a good fit in Macau – tech, health, spas, and more. Macau is a great place for international SME’ s( and big companies), particularly those from Portuguese-speaking countries.
“ What many people don’ t know is that Macau has been and continues to be a gateway into China for centuries. It also provides a great platform for organisers who want to expand into China.” EW
n Note: Stephanie Selesnick is an instructor for the UFI Exhibition Management School. www. exhibitionworld. co. uk Issue 5 2025 45