Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | March 2009 46 T he Bubble may not be the most auspicious name for one of the attractions at Melco Crown Entertainment’s soon-to-open City of Dreams resort on Cotai. Given the recent collapse of asset prices around the world during the banking credit crisis, it might remind one or two visitors of what they’ve lost. What’s interesting about ‘The Bubble’ in its casino real estate form, however, is that it appears to be a clear indication that Cotai— much more than the traditionalist Macau peninsula with its heavy duty gambling—is all about a holiday experience. Cotai seems to be following the Las Vegas lead in blurring the lines between theme park and casino property. This is because The Bubble will not only be a landmark piece of architecture, in the manner of the sphinxes at Luxor Las Vegas, but it will also have theme-park style content, along the lines of the old Treasure Island show in Vegas before it went all pecs and pole dance. Expert help MPEL has commissioned Falcon’s Treehouse LLC, an American company based in Orlando, Florida—the spiritual as well as actual home of the modern theme park—to produce a 10-minute piece of ‘multi media entertainment’ for visitors called Dragon’s Treasure. This ‘content’ for The Bubble will be, to quote the rather breathless press release from MPEL: “a totally immersive and unique multi-media entertainment experience.” This, presumably, is a fancy way of saying son et lumiere for the digital age. Further reading of the press release tends to confirm this theory. “This 10-minute immersive multi-media experience combines high-definition video content, a sweeping musical score, over 29,000 theatrical LED lights, and a variety of sensory effects to create a stirringmulti-media extravaganza,”it chirps. MPEL adds that Dragon’s Treasure incorporates eastern philosophy and Chinese mythology. “By harnessing the vast emotional power of “elemental storytelling” and breaking familiar conventions of narrative story forms down to their most simplistic components—Dragon’s Treasure looks to surround and envelop the audience both physically and emotionally through cinematic techniques and in-theater special effects,”waffles the publicity. Creative Falcon’s Treehouse appears to be one of those companies that sums up the zeitgeist of modern business in that what it’s selling is to some extent intangible. According to its own website, it is a “creative services firm”, specialising in creating ‘themed experiences” and has done so for a number of clients with theme park interests including Busch Gardens, Disney, SeaWorld and the Hard Rock brand (which also has a themed hotel at City of Dreams). The company has also produced an exhibit for Science Centre Singapore. The old fashioned among us might think an experience is something a person, well, experiences, rather than something that’s sold to us like a can of cola. We should be the ones who decide if what we’re undergoing is an ‘experience’ worthy of the name. Still, Cotai’s future mega resorts will need to offer some form of iconic attraction in order to compete with their neighbours. Dragon’s Treasure fulfils that requirement at City of Dreams. The Venetian Macao has its resident live theatre spectacular ZAIA, lavishly produced for Las Vegas Sands Corp at a cost of more than US$150 million (according to Chinese news agency Xinhua) by the Canadian company Cirque du Soleil. The Venetian Macao also has its opera- singing gondoliers, even if the music for around half of those tenors has stopped now that the‘fat lady’of the global credit crisis has sung, depriving them of their work visas. Family fun MPEL’s Dragon’s Treasure will be free to all comers. Visitors will Asia’s Orlando? A new attraction announced for City of Dreams could take Cotai further down the theme park path The Bubble will feature an “immersive multi-media experience” dubbed The Dragon’s Treasure The Bubble at City of Dreams City of Dreams