Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JUL 2023年7月 亞博匯 26 COVER STORY AWS: When you refer to that mass and premium mass market, Sands China has recently invested more than US$2 billion into the conversion of Sands Cotai Central into The Londoner Macao. Why was that change made and how do you feel about your Macau product portfolio generally? Dr Wong: We have always taken the view that in a very competitive market such as Macau, properties with a theme find it easier to attract tourists. With The Venetian, which has been in operation for over 15 years, it always scored very high in the tourists’ minds of places they must see when they’re in Macau – second only to the Ruins of St Paul’s. That’s why we developed The Parisian and then, when we were planning to redevelop [Sands Cotai Central], we felt, “Hey, we have to find another destination”. We did some surveys and found that among the Chinese people, their few must-see locations in the world include London, so we decided to continue with our European themes by adopting the London theme. AWS: Does that show a growing understanding of the market by Sands China? Is it something that has emerged or something that Sands has discovered as part of its journey over the last 20 years? Dr Wong: I think it’s a combination. It’s a combination of us getting to know the market better and the market itself AWS：我聽您剛才提到中場及高端中場 市場。其實金沙中國就在最近投資了20 億美元，把金沙城中心改建為澳門倫敦 人。為甚麼會作出這樣的改變呢？您對 於您們在澳門的產品組合又有甚麼看法 呢？ 王英偉博士： 我們一直都認為，在澳門 這樣高度競爭的市場中，那些有主題的 物業都更容易吸引旅客。以威尼斯人為 例，這個已經運作了超過15年的物業， 一直都在旅客心目中那份澳門必到景點 清單上名列前茅，僅次於大三巴牌坊。 這亦是我們開發巴黎人的原因。後來， 當我們重新發展（金沙城中心）時，我 們就覺得：「我們好像要找來另外一個 旅遊目的地。」於是，我們進行了一些 調查，發現在中國受訪者心中那幾個少 數在世界上的必到地方，就包括了倫 敦。因此，我們決定延續我們的歐洲主 題，並且選擇了倫敦。 AWS：這個決定是否體現出金沙中國對 於市場那不斷提高的熟悉程度呢？這又 到底是自己冒出來的，還是金沙中國在 其過去20年間的征途中發現的呢？ 王英偉博士： 我認為這是兩者兼有。一 方面，我們對於市場的認識越來越深， 而且市場本身也在不斷轉變。如果您觀 察那些新一代旅客，他們尋求的東西與 從前的世代並不相同。他們希望找到