Inside Asian Gaming

higher rates is a calculated risk, but one that Mr. Bowie is well qualified to take. Fonnerly Senior Vice President and General Manager for Park Place Enter­ tainment's Australian Conrad Jupiter operation, he spent sixteen years with Park Place Entertainment in Australia, holding senior positions in Casino and General Finance and Hotel Operations before being appointed as General Manager at both Park Place Entertain­ ment managed properties in Australia. He also spent seven years with Arthur Anderson, providing financial and in­ formation system consulting to the Gaming and Hospitality industry in Australia and the United States includ­ ing llarrah's Las Vegas, Circus Circus, Peppennill lnns and Casinos and Hilton Corporation. Constrnction work on the casino re­ sort is on schedule, and the opening is likely to be late next year as planned. "Speed to market is important but sus­ tainability within a market is actually the key. I often hear people tell me that the market in this region is moving so quickly you can't use strategy. I think that is invalid. You actually need very strong, dynamic strategies." With unemployment now at a record low of 4.2 percent and tens of thousands of new workers needed for the new de­ velopments opening up on the Cotai Strip staiting in 2007, recruitment is a very real challenge for Wynn, which will begin hiring frontline staff in No­ vember and some of those strategies will be tested. Core goals and objectives In the meantime, Mr. Bowie says his company is already preparing for it with a group of supervisors and managers in Las Vegas now for train-the-trainer courses, and has hired 11 interns from local institutions of higher learning this summer. "We're bringing people together from different walks of life and giving them core goals and objectives," Mr. Bowie says, adding that he will also rely on fa­ cilities like the University of Macau and the Institute for Tourism Studies and the Macau Tourism and Casino Career Cen­ ter. "That's allowed us to develop the way we need to train them. It's im­ portant that those sorts of facilities are maintained. We need to support them," he maintains. He's also looking at the Macau Polytechnic Institute, which has a program for retraining older workers who have been displaced by factories moving to the Mainland. "It's all about creating opportunities for Wynn's local employees and their families," he says, and explains that he would like to see young people who left to find opportunities elsewhere in the past come back to work in Macau. One example ofan area where government, tourism and gaming industries need to work together is in setting a "collective propo­ sition" that will encourage visi­ tors to stay longer. Still a lot to be done There is still a lot to be done before Macau can "anchor itself as the gam­ ing hub of Asia," he says, and getting Macau companies to work together is key, he maintains. "The industry is not working together. There is a level of suspicion. The foreign US companies versus the locals. The time is getting close when people will feel more com­ fortable, though." "Macau is very aware that it needs to rapidly evolve its infrastructures. We need effective government systems and infrastructures. It's easy to blame other people for things not happening. I need to find a way to make things happen, but "Our strength will comefrom working together. I f we don 't, the other destinations will copy us, and we'd be foolish to let that h ap - pen. ,, the agenda is huge. We all get frustrated about how long things take, but at the end of the day, we all need each other, whether we be in government, indus­ try, or the community." One example of an area where government, tourism and gaming industries need to work to­ gether is in setting a "collective propo­ sition" that wiII encourage visitors to stay longer. "Our strength will come f r om work­ ing together. If we don't, the other des­ tinations will copy us, and we'd be fool­ ish to let that happen." While he sees "a great sense of achievement" here, he admits, "I don't think there is enoughcohesion, dialogue, and working together." He warns of the possible consequences: "Hawaii is an example of what can happen. Hawaii rode the crest of the Japanese outbound tourism boom, while some people at the University of Hawaii warned, 'you're losing touch with the domestic market.' We know what happened next: Japan sneezed and Hawaii caught pneumo­ nia." "We need to take responsibil­ ity. Macau needs to become a city where people would want to live. " Australia's Gold Coast is another ex­ ample he cites. "The Gold Coast lost its appeal because other destinations were able to give people more options. People had other choices, so they went somewhere else." Ultimately, he says, "We need to take responsibility. Macau needs to become a city where people would want to live." At the same time, "Macau is go­ ing through a huge transformation. For some it's scary. For some, the change is negative. We recognize Wynn is a big agent of that change. When I arrived it represented a beginning." Inside Asian Gaming September 2005 27