MACAU BUSINESS
“We still have a ton of stuff to prove”
by Paulo A. Azevedo
There have been ups and downs for Melco Crown Entertainment but it is now a multibillion dollar, US-listed company. In a Macau Business exclusive, the young man at its helm says the journey has been fun and rewarding but “we still have a long road ahead”. Melco Crown chief executive Lawrence Ho says it is time to improve the results on the mass market, to generate higher cash flow and get more land in Cotai. Would his company be interested in the Macao Studio City plot if it went on the market? Definitely
L
et me start with City of Dreams’ entertainment crown jewel, The House of Dancing Water. Great reviews so far but a US$250 million (MOP2 billion) production does not exactly have a speedy return on investment. Was it money well
spent? Lawrence Ho - Certainly money well spent. I have
been working on this show for five years. From day one, even before Altira opened, my philosophy was for us to become the entertainment centre of Macau and, certainly, the entertainment centre of Cotai. Of course, at the end of the day, Macau is still a gaming town. You will never see 50 percent gaming versus 50 percent non-gaming like you do in Las Vegas. Still, what we need to do as a casino operator is to create more reasons for gamblers to effectively choose us over our competitors. US$250 million is a lot of money, probably the
most expensive show ever created. [This amount] included the theatre that is a very specialised one. Ever since we opened, in mid-September, The House of Dancing Water has already been paying off in terms of generating a ‘desire’ effect. We are still at an early stage in Cotai and we didn’t
have the first mover advantage. Venetian had that. So, for us to build up our brand equity, it takes a lot more effort. Having said that, ever since the show opened, we
are seeing a lot of the intangible effects, with people coming to City of Dreams and staying here.
There are still people advocating that gaming operators 20 DECEMBER 2010
need to invest more on non-gaming in order to transform Macau into an entertainment hub. Do you consider that by bringing in this show, you are fulfilling your commitment to Macau?
I certainly think so. We have always said that we
follow the lead from the Macau government. They want to grow Macau not just as a casino town but as a real entertainment and leisure tourism city. I hope that they will agree with us, that The Bubble, The House of Dancing Water, Kids City, Cubic, all these non-gaming amenities we are trying to build, are helping to grow the multi-stay market. People did not have enough excuses to stay longer in the past because all the casinos were just casinos and hotels. What was the point of staying? But now, with the shopping we have, the shopping that Four Seasons has, One Central, with these shows, with good restaurants, I am convinced people will stay longer. Our biggest market is China and the Chinese
patrons are now becoming very sophisticated and maturing very fast. Three years ago, they still wanted just to eat cup noodles at the gaming table. Now they want to enjoy the finest cuisine.
It took 30 years for Las Vegas to fully develop its non-
gaming and entertainment offerings. Will Macau follow the same philosophy?
I have been a believer of that for the past five years. I wish it could have developed even quicker, but I am still a big believer. Assuming that all the infrastructure issues get
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