28/8/2007: The day travel in Asia changed

by Yeoh Siew Hoon

The day I was at The Venetian Macao, they were getting ready to welcome their one millionth visitor. That’s about two weeks after opening.

“How do you know it’s one millionth?” I asked the resort’s operations chief, Steven Hicks, imagining an old wizened man clicking away at one of those tickers some airlines still use to count their flock.

“We have these cameras, they are amazing. They can track everything, we can see everything,” he says with the air of a man who’s gotten used to dealing with the numbers associated with a place like this. This, meaning the first hotel to open in what will be the world’s largest integrated resort on Macau’s Cotai Strip.

Yes, folks, mark it in your diary – August 28, 2007 is the day Asia’s tourism industry changed forever. (The date was chosen because it sounds like “easy” and “strike it rich” in Cantonese; I wonder for whom though.)

The Venetian Macao is open, and it means business. This is a place that makes its own legends and, clearly, its own fate. Stories abound. Not enough ferries to bring people in, let’s build new ferries. Not enough tour coaches to bus ‘em in, let’s order more.

It’s as though the Man with the Golden Leaf (the resort features three million pieces of golf leaf), Sheldon Adelson, has said, “If they ain’t doing it for us, we’re going to do it ourselves.”

So does this also mean, not enough business, let’s buy it?

The scale is jaw-dropping. I don’t even know where and how to begin to describe it because there are only so many words to describe BIG in any language.

The rooms? PLENTY. 3,000 suites at The Venetian equals 25% of Macau’s room inventory. The suites are spacious, minimum 60 sqft. I like the free wireless throughout the building.

The exhibition centre? IMMENSE. CAVERNOUS. (One million square feet, if you must know.)

The arena? ENORMOUS. HUGE. 15,000 seats. Too big? Apparently not. Tickets for the tennis match between Roger Federer and Pete Sampras and an NBA match sold out quicker than you could say, ball.

The shops? INFINITE. ENDLESS. MORE TO COME. More retail than any of Hong Kong’s largest shopping malls.

The chandeliers? Too many to count and they emit a lot of light. The Venetian is said to account for 52% of Macau’s energy consumption.

And let’s not forget the casino. BIG. BIGGEST (actually). This is the world’s biggest gambling room – let’s not be polite here and use the word “gaming”. Yet they say it’s only 10% of the space. What they don’t mention is it seems to attract 90% of the people, 90% of the time.

You walk around and the gambling floor is always full, while the rest of the space is fairly empty. Yes, but wait till the conventions and exhibitions come in, they say. That’s when retail will come into its own.

Stroll through the canals and you feel you could be in, no, not Venice – I did not feel like I was in Venice – but a “Disneyland for adults”, as Adelson calls his little baby.

He is right. The sky is always blue with fluffy white clouds. The façades of the shops look like little doll houses. On the ceilings are cherubic angels and buxom goddesses looking out for you.

It’s always somewhere between dawn and dusk – no night or day – that way, you just let time go by and gamble, shop and eat. The water in the canals are perennially clear and placid. The gondoliers are all dark, handsome and smiling, unlike in the real Venice where they can sometimes be surly, and fat. And they sing O Sole Mio with such sincerity.

It may not be everybody’s cup of tea but there are sure a lot of tea drinkers who will love this place.

Get lost? There are more than 2,000 signs throughout the site but get lost, you will. But don’t worry, there are about 200 resort concierges posted throughout the site to ensure no one goes astray.

There are about 12,000 staff now working in the resort and there will be 45,000 vacancies coming up shortly. That’s because by 2010, the Cotai Strip will have a total of 20,000 rooms.

My advice to all businesses out there – love your people and customers, otherwise the big giant’s going to take them away to Happy Ever After Land.

Catch more of Yeoh Siew Hoon every week at The Transit Cafe