Our Desk | The Difference is (not) Macau!

Renato Marques

I know this is a recurrent topic and despite the fact that almost everybody has had a few words on the topic, I still think it is necessary to address it over and over again from different angles and perspectives, as many times as the number of people in Macau – I guess.
I guess the (natural) resistance to “change” is impressed on our DNA and even the ones that judge themselves as the most “forward thinkers” can fall easily into the traps of human nature.
Macau and its people are no exception! Oh no! The difference is not Macau!
Like the tendency to avoid change, we humans also have other abilities, like “assuming” things and adopting the opinions expressed by those we sympathize with.
It is frequent for those residing in the territory to receive via Facebook, Instagram and others, sponsored advertising by local companies and namely the big hotels and resorts over their “promotional packages,” some of them directed to Macau ID holders only.
If some of these promotion packages seem to be totally disconnected from the reality, others seem to be edging the ridiculous.
From Champagne Brunches at prohibitive prices (for Macau or any other place in the planet) to spa packages that would seem extravagant even to a spa addict, it seems like these institutions that we all think of as respectable are intending to lose the respect of residents.
I’m far from being a marketing expert but I don’t think I need to be one to understand that campaigns like this are far from reaching the “supposed” target when the target is entirely made up of residents with a “normal” salary that although might have an interest for some “luxury” and “flaunting” cannot enroll in this kind of madness more than once a year (at most).
So, my question is: Can these places survive and be profitable on a “once a year” sale?
To me, cases like these (and many others) are mere expressions of the resort industry’s inability to reform or reinvent themselves.
The example serves simply to show a picture, a picture that I see everyday and that seems to be ignored by a large number of government members and lawmakers, as well as administrators and CEOs – Macau has changed! Our tourism is not the same as it was two or three years ago and although tourism figures are tracked and logged into the system like “oil into the machine,” the people in the streets, in the shops, in the restaurants and coffee shops and also in the casinos feel differently.
In my opinion we need to accept the new status Macau established by the all mighty Central Government of the People’s Republic of China and move forward, reinvent ourselves, search for existing opportunities and create others, instead of standing still with the eyes pointed to China’s border check-
points like thirsty dogs looking at a tap waiting for someone to open it so we can finally drink the water.
Macau isn’t different from any place in the world, other countries and territories had to change, while some decided not to and are withering.
As Jay Asher said in “Thirteen Reasons Why” – “You can’t stop the future. You can’t rewind the past. The only way to learn the secret… is to press play.”