Macau Builds For Burgeoning Meetings, Incentives Biz

<B> Macau Builds For Burgeoning Meetings, Incentives Biz</B>

By Judy Jacobs

While Macau awaits its return to Chinese rule on Dec. 20, the Portuguese-administered territory on the southern coast of China is busily building new attractions, new venues, a convention center and a solid foundation for a burgeoning meetings and incentives industry.

Known for its rich history, Macau has been an outpost of Portuguese culture and a center of Asian Christianity for more than 400 years. Its cobblestone streets, pastel stucco buildings, ancient forts, historic cathedrals and, of course, its casinos, make Macau a place unique in Asia--and tourism officials contend, a new and unusual meetings and incentives destination.

At the same time, Macau also is continuing its centuries-old role as a conduit for trade with China and has in the past decade become a gateway for conducting business in China's southern Guangdong Province. The rapidly developing Zhuhai Special Economic Zone, in fact, is located just across the border.

"We are trying to maintain our identity and conditions as a meeting place between East and West," said Joao Manuel Costa Antunes, who is director of the Macau Government Tourist Office. "Macau acts as a city of service for those companies who want to enter China but who want a Western city to operate from."

While international hotels and a two-year-old airport offering flights to various Chinese cities provide the well-developed infrastructure business travelers seek, Macau still is hard at work establishing its meetings and incentives market. Compared to other cities in Asia, Macau is a newcomer to this market, but is determined to try to follow in their footsteps in attracting an increasing number of meetings and incentives.

In 1997, the last year for which statistics are available, the territory hosted 458 meetings and incentive events, including 53 international and 217 regional meetings. While incentives remain relatively rare, Macau's tourism officials hope to grow this market with the new facilities and events under development in the territory. The most important of these is the Macau Convention & Exhibition Center, which is being developed as a private sector project on land between Macau's two islands of Taipa and Coloane. Construction has begun, but no completion date has been set. The six-story Macau Convention & Exhibition Center will contain 312,000 square feet of meeting and exhibition space. Plans also call for a 32-story hotel.

Another facility, the Macau Cultural Center, is scheduled to open this month. It will include a 1,200-seat concert hall, as well as several other halls accommodating up to 400 attendees. A small museum will display the works of local artists. The center will be the site of local events and be available for meetings and private functions.

Meanwhile, the new Museu de Macau, opened in April 1998. This comprehensive museum has interactive exhibits that portray the territory's early days, its traditional life and culture and the development of current-day Macau. The Museum is available for events of up to 800 people for banquets or 2,000 for cocktail receptions. Although no food and drink is allowed in the facility itself, they can be served outside on the adjoining terrace.

In Taipa Village on Taipa Island, a series of five traditional Macanese houses are under renovation as a location for offsite parties. As part of a long-awaited project, these houses will be turned into a museum and restaurant reflecting the history of Macau's Portuguese-Chinese society. Also on Taipa, The Macau Marine Park, similar to Hong Kong's Ocean Park and including an aquarium, rides and dolphin tanks, will open at the turn of the century.

Also located on Taipa Island is the Hyatt Regency Macau, which completed a more than $6 million renovation at the end of 1997. It covered all 326 rooms, the public areas and meeting rooms. As part of the project, the former Chinese restaurant was converted into the Hyatt's newest meeting space, known as the Drawing Room. Other convention and meeting facilities include a pillarless ballroom, accommodating 500 attendees, and 12 other function rooms. The resort hotel is the only one in Macau with a team-building ropes course and a climbing wall.