Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JUL 2023年7月 亞博匯 44 COVER STORY just tropical but a French garden because it’s at the foot of the Eiffel Tower (at The Parisian Macao). So that’s what it is now but with the weather conditions in Macau, there are several months every year where people cannot go there with the rain and the heat. So, we said, “let’s work on something that will become an iconic attraction for Macau, perhaps with an indoor conservatory and covered.” That’s the idea because we want to increase the number of tourist attractions. Any tourist destination needs new tourist attractions and if you look at examples like Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay, these are very attractive features. So, if we can do it, we’ll do it and that’s our proposal for that 50,000 square-meter garden. As to the future of Parcels 7 and 8, it’s really for the government, and they are already designated in the overall town plan for commercial purposes. Exactly what the government wants to do when the land is [made available] – I think it’s really up to the government now but anything that is MICE related, convention related, would be very helpful for the overall Cotai package. AWS: Sports tourism is another area Sands China flagged when signing its new concession contract. Are there any plans that you can share with us? Dr Wong: Our advantage is that we already have the arenas in which we can host sports events, as opposed to some of the other competitors. And we do have a plan to upgrade our current arena very soon so that it has state-of-the-art facilities. After all, the current Cotai arena is 16 years old, but we now have the new Londoner Arena and that is a 6,000-seat arena, so on completion we would have a 15,000-seat arena and a 6,000-seat arena that can really work together for all kinds of events. In the past, our sports events were constrained by the need for entertainment activities, so if I have a concert on the weekend, I can’t really have a sports event. But with two arenas working, we should