Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming May 2016 12 Cover Story While the convergence of Macau and Hengqin into a single tourist destination remains distant, investors are already leveraging Hengqin’s proximity and special relationship with Macau as well as its unique status within China. The WTA Elite Trophy Tournament, the final stop on the women’s professional tennis circuit, debuted at the Hengqin Tennis Center in November. Promoters have a five-year contract to stage the tournament for top players not tapped for the WTA Finals, an event previously held in Bali and Sofia, Bulgaria. “Tennis events are done by promoters or cities that want to get on the world stage,” Tournament Director Peter Johnston says. The tournament showcases Hengqin’s new tennis complex with a 5,500 seat indoor stadium, plus five match courts with seating for up to 1,500 and a dozen practice courts. At last year’s internationally televised inaugural event, China’s first champion in a Grand Slam tournament, Li Na, gave a clinic and made other appearances. The tournament winner was American Venus Williams, who first played in China in a previous millennium and won a doubles gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. “This tournament is the first part of bigger steps,” Mr Johnston, a veteran international tennis official, says. Future plans for the tennis center include a 12,000 seat arena, a hotel and exhibition area, in addition to more indoor and outdoor courts. “For Asia, this could be a perfect training hub,” he says. In addition to Hengqin’s facilities and weather suitable for year-round play, links to Macau and Hong Kong are also an essential element for the success of the center and the tournament, Mr Johnston emphasizes. “For those with access, it’s absolutely connected already,” he says, noting that during the tournament American player Madison Keys and her coach Lisa Raymond traveled nightly to a Cotai integrated resort for Mexican food. ISLAND PRACTICE To Macau law firm Rato, Ling, Lei & Cortes, Hengqin has a wealth of opportunities similar to Macau in 2001, just before gaming Playing the Macau Card take the train into Cotai. Either way, these millions of visitors will avoid the currently jammed Gongbei border crossing connecting to the Macau peninsula and, concentrated in Cotai, be less visible and burdensome to local residents. Maybe the visitors will choose to stay in Hengqin to enjoy its multitude of diversions, including Chinese homegrown theme park giant Chimelong’s Ocean Kingdom, its first of nine planned entertainment facilities, David Chow’s Portuguese themed cultural and commercial center and Lai Fung’s Creative Cultural City featuring attractions from Hollywood and across the globe. For accommodations, they can choose from among Chimelong’s themed hotels, Galaxy Entertainment’s sprawling tropical beach style resort and Shun Tak’s hotel rising above the train station to Macau, poised to take advantage of multiple entries granted to Hengqin visitors. That’s the vision for Hengqin in the minds of Macau’s tourism stakeholders. All of the pieces mentioned above are either under construction, proposed or already built. The rail link from Guangzhou to Zhuhai opened at the end of 2012. The Hengqin spur and Macau’s light rail are under construction, along with dozens of residential and commercial projects. Chimelong’s Ocean Kingdom with its amusement rides, world record setting aquarium and water park, plus the Hengqin Theater featuring circus acts, opened for Chinese New Year 2014. Ocean Kingdom attracted 5.5 million visitors in its first year, and says attendance increased 30% last year. Chimelong has also built three remarkably grand hotels. The ocean themed Hengqin Bay Hotel with 1,888 rooms was the mainland’s largest when it opened with the park. It includes a 65,000 square meter (700,000 square foot) convention center that it says can accommodate 10,000 guests. The Penguin Hotel took the top spot with 2,000 rooms when it opened early last year, along with the 700 room Circus Hotel, modeled after a European village. Room rates are roughly on par with Macau, though it’s expected Hengqin will add lower cost alternatives as it develops. Lai Fung Group, though its eSun Holdings subsidiary, was the original developer of Studio City Macau before selling its stake to Hengqin benefits from its neighbor in many ways By Muhammad Cohen The Wu Yee Sun library building on Macau University’s Hengqin campus. The entire campus site is more than a square kilometer in area.