World Gaming Magazine

15 WGM #53 2017/12 wgm8.com Macau isn’t holding back on its ambitions either, having identified 10 global cities fromwhich it conducted its tourism studies before implementing the Master Plan. Those cities were London, Paris, Dubai, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. “The selected cities are all world-class tourist destinations,” the Master Plan states. “For the future development of Macau’s tourism industry, it is significant to learn from these cities in terms of city branding, marketing, tourism positioning and tourism product diversification.” However, it adds that, “It is important for Macau to be exceptional in its own way – to stand out from other tourist destinations by developing iconic tourism products. This can include a physical development of tourism facilities or introducing distinctive and unique events and festivals that are considered to be highly original and uniquely Macau.” That uniqueness may be helped along by another major new initiative to drive Macau into the future with the government recently announcing it has signed an agreement with Alibaba Group to transform Macau into a “smart city” via cloud-computing technology. Under the terms of the four-year partnership, Alibaba will leverage the group’s cloud-computing technologies to foster the development of tourism, transportation, healthcare, city governance and talent-nurturing. “Alibaba Cloud’s big data and deep-learning technologies have been helping to build ‘city brains’ in China to improve well-being in urban living,” Alibaba Cloud President Simon Hu explains. The Master Plan focuses heavily on potential water- based activities, with the MGTO to “identify the type of water sports that can be implemented within Macau’s administrative zone” as well as “the locations for water sports and the corresponding supporting facilities.” Other recommendations contained in the report include construction of a new meetings and exhibition complex, the hosting of more globally recognized events such as festivals and sporting events, the upgrading of Macau’s Grand Prix Museum and Wine Museum, development of an iconic cultural district, building a new and unique shopping complex and implementing smart tourism technology to improve the visitor experience. That’s quite an ambitious plan for a city measuring just 30.5 square kilometers. However, the Master Plan also identifies zones for possible land reclamation in order to increase Macau’s land mass while finding the ideal location for each of these new attractions. Those zones can be seen on the adjacent aerial photo of Macau and are as follows: • Zone 4. Preferred location of a large cultural and commercial district. • Zone 5. Possible new government administrative center and MICE complex near Macau Tower. • Zone 6. Preferred location for a large commercial complex such as shopping mall. • Zone 7. One of the areas identified for waterfront leisure tourism development. • Zone 8. A mixed use commercial and cultural area.