Abstract

This paper covers the concept of integrated leisure and entertainment destination issues related to the latest information and practice of the hospitality and tourism industry. The primary goal of this report is to discuss the key trends and issues faced by Dubai and Macao. After a brief definition of leisure and entertainment, some major issues and challenges are covered that prevent a long-term sustainable destination. These problems include missing the value of marketing the destination, lack of interaction between different nationalities, depending on one resource of tourism, and relying solely on the destination's image. This is followed by how these issues affect the hospitality and tourism industry. The report concludes with recommendations which need to be carried out when any future planning takes place.

1 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….1

2.0 Leisure and Entertainment Defined………………………………………………..1

3.0 The key trends of hospitality and tourism and their impact on Dubai…...... ……1

4.0 The social impact of tourism development on Dubai……………………...... ……..2

5.0 The key trends of tourism in Macau………………………………...... ………………..4

6.0 The impact of tourism on Macau……………………………………………...... ………4

7.0 The key issues of hospitality and tourism for Macau………………...... …………..5

8.0 Conclusion and Recommendations………………………………………...... ………..6

9.0 References………………………………………………………...... ……………………...7

2 1.0 Introduction

General marketing theory has indicated the potential benefits of integrated development where many complementary goods and services can be obtained in a single location. This is a model that has been seen to work well in many tourism and leisure destinations where there is a complementary and supporting role for businesses such as hotels, restaurants, leisure complexes and tourist attractions located in near proximity (Middleton et al. 2009; Kotler & Keller 2008). This has led to many areas creating long-term sustainable tourism destinations. However, the traditional theory may often be lost in the rush for short-term profits and an attitude of ‘build it and they will come’. For example, the model to develop Dubai can be seen as a hybrid model where the tourism approach has not been the result of free market economy development, but a purposeful strategy adopted by a government seeking to diversify an economy (Sharpley 2008, p. 15).

The primary goal of this report is to discover and analyse the key trends and issues faced by the destinations where their tourism is based on integrated leisure and entertainment and their implications for hospitality and tourism. A brief definition of leisure and entertainment is provided, with Dubai and Macao as vital examples of destinations that can clarify the goal of this report.

2.0 Leisure and Entertainment Defined

Leisure tourism has been an interest to tourism researchers in the past two decades and has been given many different definitions. One definition by Weiss is when people are not working, studying or sleeping, they are free to make a choice about what they do with their spare or ‘leisure’ time (1965, p. 1). Entertainment can be defined as “any activity designed to delight and, to a smaller degree, enlighten through the exhibition of the fortunes or misfortunes of others, but also through the display of special skills by other and/or self” (Bates & Ferri 2010, p. 6). In fact, it appears that leisure and entertainment can be integrated and used by the tourism industry to attract and market a destination.

3.0 The key trends of hospitality and tourism and their impact on Dubai

Davidson (2009) noted that for many years following the adoption of an integrated tourism and leisure industry and the building hotels and facilities to attract international visitors, Dubai has been seen as the ‘new Monte Carlo of Las Vegas’. It even appeared for a short while to be able to resist the global credit crunch and recession, maintaining business when

3 many other areas were already in recession (Davidson 2009, p. 9). However, rather than opposing the trend and avoiding the recession, it simply entered it later than other countries.

The Dubai model was strongly focused on high-end tourism. The demand for high-end hotels to be built led to a construction boom, and increasing numbers of expatriate workers were needed by the construction companies to provide the labour needed for the development projects. By 2008, Dubai was attracting six million tourists per annum (Davidson 2009, p. 9). This was supported by a successful airline to bring in tourists as well as the hosting of events such as two shopping festivals a year and other events such as music festivals, all aimed at bringing in tourists (Davidson 2009, p. 9). Overall, with a great infrastructure, Dubai had a great chance to attract international visitors.

It cannot be forgotten that the impact of the rapid development was also accompanied by increased profits in the real estate industry and land prices increasing at a rapid rate, partly fuelled by the change in legislation in 2006 that allowed foreigners to own real estate; the demand was high and the development costs inevitably increased. Integrated projects such as Burj Dubai were undertaken where there were mixed complexes which included hotel, residential and commercial developments (Davidson 2009, p. 9).

A further issue of rapid development was that the first priority was increased demand. The process may be seen as leading to an over-commoditisation of tourism, where it was easier and more profitable for the tourism products, such as the hotel rooms and attractions, which becomes easier than the way in which tourism is used as an attraction and co-ordinated. The plans focused on increased demand rather than the ability of the hotels and the leisure industry to market and attract visitors (Davidson 2009, p. 11). The model in Dubai had been principally pursued with the aim of attracting tourism investment in order to increase capacity without having many of the established underlying skills to make this achievable with long- term sustainable growth.

4.0 The social impact of tourism development on Dubai

Within the model, Dubai's tourism will only exist where the relevant resources and infrastructure are present; this includes the marketing to attract the tourists, the hotels to accommodate them, attractions to make the destination desirable, and the physical requirements to allow access, such as airline routes. These elements were all dealt with in the Dubai model; however, identical patterns of tourism are not observed in all countries. Significant divergences exist; some may be partly explained by cultural differences (Stephenson & Ali-knight 2010, p. 284). Dubai has sought to overcome these with the creation of a multicultural environment and adaptability to leverage good relations with the

4 west. One financial area has been developed operating under English common law to create cultural convergence (Davidson 2009, p. 9).

However, one approach which appears to be missing from much of the literature on Dubai is the issue of spatial interaction. Within this concept, there is the ability to look at the interaction of two separate locations, that is, Dubai and the areas from which it is seeking to attract high-end tourists. At the most basic level, spatial interaction theory has three components: complementarity, transferability and intervening opportunity (Lloyd & Dicken 1990). Complementarity considers how interaction between two places occurs and how this meets their mutual needs. Transferability is the ease of that interaction, and intervening opportunity is the attraction of the competing places, which may also be seen as substitute areas (Lloyd & Dicken 1990).

The interaction theory leads to the use of more specific models such as the gravity model, which may be used to predict the level and volume of that interaction. The gravity model is based on the idea that there may be a force of gravity between two places. The strength of the gravity is the strength of the ‘pull’, and understanding the strength of the gravity or pull will help to explain or predict the extent of the spatial interaction (Lloyd & Dicken 1990). In social sciences, this has been used in studies concerning migration and travel, even shopping trips, which can equally apply to the tourism industry. Areas such as Las Vegas and Monte Carlo have had many years to build up a specific reputation, with large target markets generated much closer to home (Lloyd & Dicken 1990). Dubai is a new tourism area in this context, and as such has to develop these areas of complementarity, transferability and intervening opportunity in order to create increased commonalties and gravity.

Dubai was opening itself up to the forces that were exerted on the target markets. As the global economy suffered, there was a shift in demand, with many of the high-end tourists going to areas of lower cost, including lower transportation costs (Stephenson & Ali-knight 2010, p. 283). The spatial interaction was weaker, and the gravity of the alternate destination was stronger. When this was combined with the inevitable fall in real estate prices and the difficulty in repaying very high loans, the crisis in the industry was unavoidable. This was further exacerbated by the exodus of expatriate workers when no work was available, taking their incomes with them and reducing the potential home population that may have helped sustain some segments in the industry (Stephenson & Ali-knight 2010, p. 283). The model was limited and short sighted, with little clarity other than in a growth market.

5 5.0 The key trends of tourism in Macau

Macau, which is located in Guangdong province on the western bank of the Pearl River Delta (Macau Tourism, 2011), is one of the biggest gaming places in Asia and renowned as “Monte Carlo of the Orient” and “Las Vegas of the East”. Gaming in Macau started in the 18th century and became legalized in 1847. As the gaming industry kept growing and the government want to improve it, they formed the “Macao Gaming Committee” which is responsible for conducting studies on the development, legal issues, administrative regulations and policies related to gaming. In order to develop the gaming industry to become bigger, the Legislative Assembly of Macao passed Law No.16/2001 on the “Legal Framework for the Operations of Casino Games of Fortune”. Consequently, the committee had to find companies that wanted to invest in the gaming industry and these are the big six associations of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, S.A , Galaxy Casino, S.A , Venetian Macau, S.A , Wynn Resorts (Macau), S.A , Melco Crown Gaming (Macau) Ltd, and MGM Grand Paradise, S.A.

Of these six companies, the Venetian Macau is well known, because it was the first casino that opened. The main attraction offered by the Venetian Macau is the world famous circus of Cirque du Soleil and an indoor replica of the Venetian gondolas. There are currently 33 casinos in Macao, with 23 located on the Macao Peninsula and 10 on Taipa Island. These not only offer casino games, but also other entertainment so that everybody from all ages can enjoy their vacation in Macau.

6.0 The impact of tourism on Macau

Casinos now contribute to the biggest income for the Macau government and have become the main attraction for travellers to come to Macau. The casino revenue in Macau has grown 58% in 2010 (Promfret, 2011). Based on statistical data by Statistics and Census Service Macau SAR Government, in March 2011 the total number of visitors to Macau increased by 8.9%, and about 55.1% of the total visitors were from Mainland China. This information shows that the gaming industry has a big impact on Macau tourism. Gu (2002) explained that Macau’s market comes from Las Vegas and Europe. Casino goers in Macau have high gaming propensity and are more like gamblers than entertainment-seekers. Moreover, 23% of the visitors would stay in 5-star hotels (Tourism Statistics 2010) and come to Macau to

6 spend their money on betting; hence, most of them are quite rich. This tourism will keep on growing, because it has a good prospect for being the largest gaming industry in Asia and it is the most convenient place for Asian visitors.

7.0 The key issues of hospitality and tourism for Macau

Apart from the benefits for Macau, there are also some issues for the Macau government to consider. The gaming industry in Asia has grown bigger; however, according to the Royal Bank of Scotland, Singapore will soon overtake Las Vegas as the world’s second-largest gambling destination behind Macau (Blaise, 2011) and a new casino will be opened in the Philippines. This means that Macau has to keep on maintaining so that travellers will continue to return. Besides that, the Macau government should not only focus on the gaming industry, but should develop tourism in Macau through non-gaming leisure. As Anthony Lawrance (2009), Chief Executive Officer of Destination Macau commented,

We believe that Macau’s economy is in the early stages of a transformation. While previously it was almost completely dependent in gaming, it is now being diversified through major investments by some of the world’s leading hospitality, entertainment, and leisure companies.

Macau is reach in historical sites and in the future it can have a new purpose for people to travel there. Although the Macau government will develop this to support their economy, this can be a threat, because Macau's reputation as “Las Vegas of the East” can change; nevertheless, the government is not concerned, because the casino has been part of Macau since the 18th century, so people will know Macau as place for gambling. Furthermore, Macau is known as the first Las Vegas themed casino in Asia and this image will remain in the eyes of the travellers. As mention by Lawrance (2009), “this is still the world’s hottest gaming destination – revenues are back at record highs this quarter”, which is supported by the data from the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau that the revenue rose 48 percent this March compared to the same month last year.

7 8.0 Conclusion and Recommendations

Some destinations use integrated leisure and entertainment to draw people from different countries to have a unique experience. Dubai has built outstanding infrastructure and facilities in order to attract international tourists, with more than 6 million visitors by 2008. However, when the Dubai authority planned the development, they focussed on increasing the demand and ignored the market destination, which means that long-term sustainable growth was missing. In addition, the weak interaction between the Dubai authority and workers strongly affected the sustainable tourism industry. Regarding Macao, the government achieved the objective of developing Macao into the biggest gaming place in Asia. However, it created challenges to Macao’s economic dependence on gaming, and the image of the destination tends to be solely as a gaming destination. Therefore, to build a firm economy and long-term sustainable growth, a long-term bond market may be needed to maintain the economy from any international challenges such as the global financial crisis. Furthermore, with a large number of visitors of different nationalities, this may create a multicultural society that lacks interaction. Therefore, a solution could be to create events that have the unique ability to bring people together to assist strong communication between the different nationalities. In addition, employers’ and employees awareness of their duties should be increased, and the environment needs to attract and retain the required expertise. Finally, hosting an event may have a strong effect on the destination image when it is covered by the media, which raises the awareness of destination image and recognises the host city as having a range of attractions.

8 9.0 References

Bates, S & Ferri, AJ 2010,’what’s Entertainment? Notes Toward a Definition’,Studies in Popular Culture,vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 1-20.

Blaise, J 2011, Singapore ready to overtake Vegas, viewed 30 April 2011 http://calvinayre.com/2011/04/27/business/singapore-poised-to-overtake-las-vegas/

Davidson, CM 2009, ‘Dubai: foreclosure of a dream’, Middle East Report, 251: p8-13.

Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau Macao SAR 2011, Macao Gaming History, viewed 26 April 2011 http://www.dicj.gov.mo/web/en/history/index.html

Gu, Z 2002, ‘Performance gap between US and European casino operations: A comparative study’, Gaming Research & Review Journal, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 53–62.

Kotler, P & Keller, K 2008, Marketing Management, 13 edn, Prentice Hall.

Lloyd , PE & Dicken, P 1990, Location in Space, Theoretical Perspectives in Economic Geography, 3rd edn, HarperCollins Publishers, New York.

Macau Government Tourist Office 2011, About Macau, viewed 27 April 2011 http://www.macautourism.gov.mo/en/info/info.php

Middleton, V, Fyall, A, Morgan, M & Ranchhod A 2009, Marketing in Travel and Tourism, 4th edn, Butterworth-Heinemann.

Pomfret, J 2011, Update 1-Macau gaming revenue soars 58 pct in 2010, Reuters, viewed 26 April 2011 http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/03/macau-revenue- idUSTOE70201N20110103 Statistics and Census Service Macao SAR Government 2011, Visitor Arrivals for March 2011, viewed 26 April 2011 http://www.dsec.gov.mo/Statistic/TourismAndServices/VisitorArrivals/VisitorArrivals2011M03 -%281%29.aspx

Sharpley, R 2008, ‘Planning for Tourism: The Case of Dubai’, Tourism Planning & Development’, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 13–30.

Stephenson, ML & Ali-Knight, J 2010, ‘Dubai's tourism industry and its societal impact: social implications and sustainable challenges’, Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 278–292.

Tourism Statistics 2010, Statistics and Census Service Macao SAR Government 2011, viewed 26 April 2011 http://www.dsec.gov.mo/getAttachment/dc7d7b64-a2f4-454b-82f3 a433443764cc/E_TUR_PUB_2010_Y.aspx>

9 Travel Daily Asia 2011, New media group launches to promote Macau, viewed 30 April 2011 http://www.traveldailyasia.com/AsiaPacificNews/Detail.aspx?Section=33340

Weiss, P 1965, ‘A Philosophical Definition of Leisure’, Human Kinetics Journals, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 1-7.

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