Inside Asian Gaming

15 event previously held in Shanghai;TheWorld Tobacco Show, which is relocating an event previously held in Bali, Indonesia. The Inter- national Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, a Washington D.C. based As- sociation, also recently chose Macao for the 2008 IAAPA Asian Expo, an event being held this year in Bangkok.” LVS says it has commitments from more than 20 tradeshow organizers stretching into 2013. The release continues: “Kenfair Interna- tional (Holdings) Limited, one of Hong Kong’s leading exhibition organizers globally recog- nized for producing events for the toy, gift, premium incentive and electronics indus- tries, has signed a long-term contract with The Venetian Macao to produce two trade shows each year.” It’s difficult for Mr Adelson to have it both ways. Either he is competing with oth- er Asian convention destinations, or he’s not. At any rate, he continues to tout his law of insatiable demand in the Asian gaming and convention market. It’s not easy to find consolidated figures for the global value of the meetings market, but a recent research paper presented to the United Nations’ World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) suggested theMeetings,Incentives Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) market was worth US$322 billion in 2005—with only US$88bn of that coming from outside North America and Europe. The World Travel and Tourism Council says that between 2007 and 2017, China will lead world demand for travel and tourism, growing by an annualised figure of 9.1%. It suggests by 2017 the China market will be worth US$1.57 trillion annually (based on the US definition of trillion, i.e., a million mil- lion).The Council adds that in ten years China will be the world’s leading tourism employer with 75.7 million people making their living from the industry. UNWTO is also bullish, ex- pecting a 4-5% growth in world tourism for 2006/07 once figures are compiled. Conventions will undoubtedly contrib- ute to that growth in Asia. But unlike the basic human desire for rest and relaxation, conventions—especially in Asia—appear to be a supply-led industry, fed by a slick marketing machine. The more smart new facilities you build, the more demand you create—for a time and up to a point. The key assumption behind the selling effort of the meetings industry is that modern trade and commerce isn’t possible unless there are major events where people network and ex- change information and make deals.Sceptics may be wondering how then it was possible for China—which until now has had hardly any conventions industry to speak of—to build the world’s fastest growing economy. They may also be wondering why, after ma- jor incidents such as the 9/11 attacks on New York or the regional outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in the second quarter of 2003, business-related travel tends to drop dramatically without bringing the world economy crashing down. Followers of fashion It’s worth remembering that trade shows, like David Beckham or Brazilian biki- nis, are actually a fashion. They have swept the world in the space of less than thirty- five years. Aside from political party con- gress meetings that have been around for generations in the west, our grandparents had neither the means nor probably the inclination to travel long distances to stand in a big room with 10,000 other people all wearing nametags around their necks. De- spite the advent of mass media and infor- mation technology that allows people to have video-conferences at the touch of a button, every year millions of businessmen and women find they cannot resist the urge to fly many miles for the pleasure of being in an air conditioned hall the size of an aircraft hangar next to someone with whom they do business in their home city. Las Vegas Sands Corp’s US$3.6 billion Marina Bay Sands will take its place along Singapore’s downtown waterfront landscape in 2009, providing 1.2 million sq. ft of convention and exhibition space—2.5 times the size of Singapore’s Suntec City convention and exhibition centre