(Demo) Destination Macau 2010 : Page 70
N ovember 14, 2009. More than 300 well-heeled guests swirl into the Four Seasons Macao to sip at Moet Chandon and puff hand-made Davidoff cigars. The live Latin jazz is soft and warm, but never too loud to drown out the conversation. A typical cocktail party? Not quite, for these guests are here at the invitation of DFS Galleria Macau, and about 90 percent of them are from China. They’re here to get close-up look at approximately200 excep- tionally rare wristwatches. Many of the limited edition pieces at the occa- sion are also being revealed for the first time, includ- ing Hublot’s ‘One Million Dollar Black Caviar Bang’, adorned with 544 black baguette diamonds. Blancpain’s ‘Carrousel Volant Une Minute’ features a remarkable karussell mechanism. The Jaeger LeCoultre ‘Joaillerie Reviere 101’ has the world’s tiniest mechanical movement; and Blancpain’s ‘Equa- tion Marchante Pure’ displays both nature’s time as measured by the sun’s movements and human time as we know and use it. DFS, the world’s largest travel At the same time, the number of visitors was also growing. Last year, 21.75 million arrivals were recorded. Although it represented a slight fall com- pared to the previous year (due to visas restriction imposed by the Beijing government), about half of Macau’s visitors still came from China. “Although Las Vegas is also a gaming town, it pro- vides a more wholesome experience. In Macau, peo- ple come – and by ‘people’ we mean mainland tourists – simply to gamble,” says Hoffmann. To luxury goods conglomerates like LVMH, what does it all mean? “In Las Vegas, shopping is part of the experience; retailer, dubs the event ‘The Mas- terpieces of Time’, a product of its desire to not only show off some amazing haute horologerie, but also sell a few examples of such to invited guests. In this respect, the host is quite satis- fied: most of the watches shown have found owners within the following two weeks. But how much DFS profited from the event is “ Y o u wa n t t o spend whether You win or lose moneY [ to get rid of bad luck]. that’s whY having a shop in the vi- cinitY of the casi- no will be almost guaranteed good business.” in Macau, shopping comes after gambling,” Hoffmann continues. But this doesn’t mean retail is all hard graft in Macau. On the contrary, at a time when the world retail industry is creak- ing under the weight of a weak economy, Macau’s own retail sec- tor grew steadily. Last year, total retail revenue reached MOP22.11 billion, a jump of 16 percent over 2008. Of this, the watch and jew- elry sector recorded the highest growth of 33 percent, to MOP4.81 billion. Industry insiders believe Macau’s impressive retail growth has a lot to do with casinos. “You want to spend whether you win or lose money [to get rid of bad luck]. That’s why having a shop in the vicinity of the casino will be almost guaranteed good business,” says one unnamed industry veteran. Because most of the visitors come from China, they besides the point; the fact that it has picked Macau rather than Hong Kong to debut its collection is more significant. To luxury brands, Macau has become a rather attractive point on the map. “There’s a lot of money here for sure,” says Marie- Amelie Hoffmann, general manager of LVMH Watches & Jewellery Hong Kong. Her observation is reinforced by government statistics. In 2009, Macau’s GDP grew to MOP169.34 billion – exceptional for a city of barely more than half a million residents. Most of this vast wealth is built on a burgeoning gaming industry. In 2009, for example, Macau’s gaming reve- nue alone reached MOP120.38 billion. 70 Destination macau APR / MAY 2010 are naturally the prime target for the retailers. And as Hoffmann says, these visitors often buy on the spur of the moment: “Unlike those in Hong Kong who clearly know their budget and what they want to buy and where, in Macau, people buy on impulse.” In the past three years, Macau’s retail industry has seen exceptional growth. Shopping malls have opened, top brands have rushed in, and no-one wants to be left out. Previously, if anyone wanted to buy branded goods, they could only go to the Mandarin Oriental’ (now the Grand Lapa Hotel) lobby mall. But then came the Wynn Macau’s Wynn Esplanada. The arrival of the Venetian Macao brought with it the Grand Canal Shoppes and its vast collection of mid-range
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