Hotel Estoril development | Survey raises more questions than conclusions

The ERS director, Angus Cheong

The former hotel’s façade

The results of the public consultation requested by the government regarding public opinion on how the decrepit Hotel Estoril could be reused were announced yesterday in a press conference held by the Office of the Secretary of Social Affairs and Culture at the Macau Cultural Center.
“More than 70 percent agree with the government proposal for the hotel and [adjacent] swimming pool,” said Kenny Ip, the Chief of the Office of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture. Secretary Alexis Tam did not attend.
The company e-Research & Solutions (ERS) conducted a study that applied two methods: a collection of “society’s opinions” and a “random telephone survey.”
ERS director Angus Cheong explained that a total of 818 opinions were collected. From those, 15 percent are from associations while 85 percent are from individual citizens. The same document shows that, from those opinions, more than 8 percent were issued by members of Macau’s several advisory councils.
The data gathered from this method shows that almost 83 percent of these opinions favor the “rebuild” of the former Estoril Hotel, a word (rebuild) that drew questions from journalists. The term “rebuild” is presented on the survey as synonymous with a “demolition of the actual premises and construction of new ones.” On the other hand, only 9.8 percent of the opinions opposed the “rebuild.” The data also shows that 7.8 percent of opinions were considered “not explicit.”
These “not explicit” opinions were also a target for the press, who questioned the fact that the majority of the answers classified as such had resulted from the groups defined as Commentators/Presenters (82.4 percent), Experts/Academics (66.7 percent), and Architects/Engineers (66.7 percent).
Among those who opposed the demolition of the building and wanted it to be preserved, the most highlighted reason – with 20 opinions collected – was that “the building has a historical and cultural value and should be included on the heritage site listing.”
The results from the telephone survey showed a high percentage of people (75 percent) who claimed to know about the “ideas of the government for the reuse of the former Estoril Hotel and the Estoril municipal swimming pool.”
The results also show that the surveyed citizens attributed an average of 7.4 points (on a graduation scale between 0 and 10, in which 0 represents total disagreement and 10 total agreement), representing classifications from 6 or more points as a total of 68.6pct.
The phone survey revealed that the citizens agreed on certain things that should be included in the reconstruction. The creation of the public parking facility was the top answer with 8.3 points, followed by sports facilities (7.6 points). The prospect of a heated swimming pool won 7.4 points.
One of the most controversial  aspects of the study was related to opinions on the demolition and reconstruction of the former hotel. The results showed that 81.5 percent of the survey participants have “no opinion”, while 12.3 percent say there is “no need to preserve the whole building.” A total of 5.4 percent say exactly the opposite, that “there is a need to preserve the complete building.”
This figure seems to be a contradiction with the data previously released, although that was disregarded by the makers of the study. “This was an ‘open question’ where we tried to get other opinions, but the people had already expressed support to the project before,” said Angus Cheong, backed up by Kenny Ip and the secretariat’s advisor Olivia Lam.
In the conclusions, Ip admitted that there is currently no “plan B” for the hotel’s future, saying that these are the current ideas from the government for the reuse of the space. However, he stated that “nothing is decided yet, the government will now search for experts’ opinion” before adding that “the government keeps an ‘open’ position regarding the opinions and contributions to this project.”
The government’s ideas for the former Estoril Hotel include the transformation of the space into a cultural, recreational and educational venue that will “tentatively” house new conservatories and schools for music, dance and theatre, as well as a heated swimming pool for public use all year long.
The survey cost the government MOP600,000.