Macau Shopping Festival hopes for double-digit revenue growth

The organizers of the Macau Shopping Festival 2014 hope to achieve double-digit growth in the revenue to be generated during the event this year.
The festival, which is in its fourth year, will take place between December 3 and 31.
Vincent Tung, general director of the Macau Shopping Festival 2014 organizing committee said on the sidelines of the festival’s opening ceremony at City of Dreams that total spending on the event this year by the organizing committee and all other participants has exceeded MOP30 million. He said that in previous years, the event has achieved an annual growth of 20 to 30 pct in terms of revenue. “We hope that this year we can have  double-digit growth. As you know, gaming revenue has been falling in the previous four to five months. We can see that when there is less gambling, consumption  also drops, especially for high-end products. We hope that with more people coming [to Macau], it can help consumption in the city,” he said.
When it comes to the special features of the Macau Shopping Festival, Mr Tung believes that one of them is the lucky draw upon arrival. It allows tourists to take part in an instant lucky draw at four main ports of entry in Macau, including the Macau Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal, Taipa Temporary Ferry Terminal, Macau International Airport and the Border Gate. Travellers can participate in the lucky draw by presenting valid ferry or air tickets or immigration stamps to the lucky draw counters at the locations. “We have studied the shopping festivals in other countries and regions and found that they don’t have this type of lucky draw. We think that this is a special feature of Macau as a gaming city,” he said.
Meanwhile, the president of the organizing committee, Ms Terry Sio, indicated that they have invited a lot of big retailers to join the festival this year. “We hope that upon arrival, travellers can instantly feel that Macau has an atmosphere of shopping so that they will think that it is also a shoppers’ paradise. This is what we want to achieve the most,” she said. JPL