Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JUL 2019年7月 亞博匯 25 for gaming in China. Macau just needs to take full advantage of it. It’s no secret, there certainly is regional pressure, especially from jurisdictions that are up and coming and from a regulatory standpoint, less rigorous than Macau. MC: How does Greater Bay Area integration factor in? LH: It’s great. The first step is the Hong Kong-Zhuhai- Macau bridge, and we are seeing an uptick in visitation. The real benefit comes in having one of the best and most efficient international airports in the world, Hong Kong airport, less than 40 minutes from Macau. So long term, it’s absolutely fantastic. Short-term, I think the integration through Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau, there’s more work to be done to make the whole journey smoother and allow more people on it. It’s China. They’re very cautious. MC: Bay area integration makes Macau even more of a one-market destination. Should Macau instead broaden its customer base? LH: It’s foolish to think that Macau is going to be a worldwide destination. If you look at Las Vegas, it’s very much a middle-America market. Geographically it’s the closest. With regional gaming competition, people have a lot of choices. Repeat customers are always the ones closest to you. We’ve had some great successes moving our players to the Philippines and getting Filipino players to come to Macau, or Korean players coming to the Philippines to Macau. But at the heart of it, people are still going to go to the markets that are closest to them, especially if there are comparable resorts. The success of Macau, or Hong Kong for that matter, is always going to ride on Chinese policy and the Chinese economy. MC: With Studio City located next to the Lotus Bridge, is Melco active in Hengqin? LH: We’ve looked for many years, I wouldn’t say very seriously, and it’s one of the rare things where we’ve gotten the timing right, because we’ve always looked at it and said maybe it’s too early. Every year or two I bring the entire management team over to take a look, given that it’s our neighbor and what’s good for them is good for Macau, and what’s good for Macau, especially in Cotai, is good for Melco. It’s early. Last year when we visited, there was one occupant in all those amazing buildings. At Melco International, we’ve also looked at it from a non-gaming resort standpoint, to see how we give back to China and how we give back to the Greater Bay Area. Again, it’s still early. But we’re always open-minded. MC: On Studio City, why not buy out your partner? LH: I can’t really talk much about it because recently New Cotai filed for bankruptcy protection in the US. But on too many conference calls now we have answered the same question with the same answer: we have had discussions, we have had interest. MC：那您怎樣看待粵港澳大灣區融合的影響？ 何猷龍： 會很不錯。首先就是港珠澳大橋，我們看到遊客人數正在 上升。真正的獲益之處在於，世界上最好、效率最高的國際機場之 一——香港國際機場，現在距離澳門不過四十分鐘。 長遠來看，這政策絕對很棒。短期來看，我覺得香港、珠海、澳 門三地的融合，整個過程需要更加順暢、並且要讓更多的人參與 其中。中國對此還是很謹慎的。 MC：大灣區融合發會讓澳門更像是一個服務單一市場的目的地。 你認為澳門應該擴大其客戶範圍嗎？ 何猷龍： 那種認為澳門將成為全球目的地的想法是不明智的。以 拉斯維加斯為例，它很大程度上也就是主打美國中部市場。因為 地理上它是最近的。區域博彩競爭崛起，人們多了很多選擇，但回 頭客總是那些離你最近的人。我們曾經試過將我們的玩家帶去菲 律賓，將菲律賓的玩家帶來澳門，或者把韓國的玩家送到菲律賓 或者澳門，都很成功。但最終，人們還是會選擇距離自己最近的地 方，尤其是如果那裡有質素相近的綜合度假村的話。澳門或香港 的成功，永遠取決於中國政策和中國經濟。 MC：新濠影匯就坐落在蓮花口岸的旁邊。新濠在橫琴會有所動作 嗎？ 何猷龍： 我們觀察了多年，但就決定暫時不做任何動作，開玩笑的 說，這可能是少數幾件我們成功正確地判斷時機的事。我們一直 有關注那裡，每過一兩年，我都會帶著管理團隊過去看一下，畢竟 那裡毗鄰我們，對它們有利的也會對澳門、尤其是對路氹有利，也 就會對新濠有利。但目前看來一切尚早。我們去年過去參觀的時 候，看到那些令人驚歎的建築物裡只有一家進駐。 於新濠國際，我們一直以打造非博彩度假村為出發去看那 封面故事