Frederick Yip (center)
Organizers of the Macau Shopping Festival said they have immensely invested in promoting the upcoming sixth edition of the festival, which will be held from December 3 to 31.
Frederick Yip, president of the executive committee of the Macau Association of Retailers & Tourism Services, one of the event’s organizers, said they are currently promoting through advertisements on public buses, televisions and booklets.
“What we spend is mostly on marketing expenses,” he told the Times. Yip implied that the aim of this year’s event was also to bring neighboring regions to the festival.
In his speech, he recalled that in the first half of the year, the region experienced a drop in consumer spending and retail sales, and said that the festival would help uplift the retail market.
Due to the past economic downturns, Yip said there were fewer contributions from some high-end stores.
“They still want to support but they cannot support as much as last year,” he explained.
The 6th Macau Shopping Festival, which includes organizers from several gaming operators (including Sands China, Melco, Galaxy and Wynn), has a budget of MOP30 million.
A total of MOP5.5 million will be spent on lucky draw prizes. Throughout the event, shoppers could join in the lucky draw by purchasing at least MOP500 of merchandise from participating stores.
As the organizers have been greatly investing in promoting the event, this year’s edition will only hold a smaller opening ceremony. Last year, the festival’s grand opening amounted to a staggering amount of MOP4 million.
“Now we use [the funds] to promote instead,” Yip noted, without disclosing the advertising budget. The organizers have also extended their retail stores to local small and medium enterprises.
Meanwhile, Helena de Senna Fernandes, director of the Macao Government Tourism Office, hoped that the shopping festival would increase tourist spending in the region.
According to her, tourists are expected to stay longer in Macau. “We want to attract more people to stay longer and our expectation is for people to stay longer here and really eventually think [that] Macau is a shopping destination as well,” she told the Times.
Light festival to present new elements
Helena de Senna Fernandes has announced that the city’s Light Festival will run from December 4 until 31. Although complete details are still under discussion, the MGTO head said the festival’s locations would be around Nam Van and Sai Van Lake to highlight the AnimArte Nam Van area. “We believe that this will continue to be an interesting festival because there will be different things compared to last year,” she revealed. “This year, there will be a combination of both light installations and light projections.”
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