Galaxy Entertainment Group introduces an International Convention Centre and Arena in Macau

Galaxy Entertainment Group has officially introduced Galaxy International Convention Centre and Galaxy Arena.

The Convention Centre will feature a 10,000sqm pillar-less Exhibition Hall, an Auditorium seating 650 guests, a Banquet Hall seating 2,400 guests, a 4,000sqm Conference Hall, a Ballroom catering for over 1,000 guests; a diverse selection of dining options and a luxury lifestyle hotel with over 700 rooms. Additionally, the 16,000-seat Galaxy Arena is set to become Macau’s ultimate integrated entertainment venue for world-tour concerts and spectacular large-scale sports events. The new venues will open in the first half of 2021. Event Point International met Scott Kreeger, resort director of Galaxy International Convention Centre, in Bangkok, at IT&CMA Asia.

Why is Macau a good destination for events and congresses?

There’s a couple of key features that make it a good destination. One: you have to have good access. Two: it has to be a place where people want to come. And three: you have to have the facilities and the MICE infrastructure to pull off great events. So, when you look at Macau as a destination, we have had vast improvements on our infrastructure over the last ten years.

The new bridge…

Yes, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai- Macau bridge has just opened up and that allows to have three international airports that you can come in from. Hong Kong alone has 200 direct flights internationally. High-speed rail coming down from mainland China, that connects them, as well as the ferry systems that exist today. It’s less than an hour drive time from the airport to our location, which really for any big international city it’s about the time it takes anyway. So we have that to offer. Secondly, as far as being an interesting place, as you know, it was a Portuguese seafaring port for over 400 years, so there’s a mix of East meets West, the cultures of China, Canton, Portugal mix together not only in the architecture and history, which is unrivaled in China. We have over 20 UNESCO World Heritage sites and it’s one the largest combined world heritages sites in all of China, and one of the oldest. The food is amazing. When you get this mix of Portuguese, Cantonese, Chinese, and what we call Macanese food together, in a few days you can´t even begin to explore the culinary culture that is there. People want to be introduced to culture and experiences outside their working day. So, Macau offers that. And the other thing that is unique about Macau is the large amount of integrated resorts, so there’s very few places in the world that have the scale of integrated resorts that we have. So whether is dining, retail or hotel offers, any of these infrastructure are fantastic. Our property alone has 120 dining options and 200 retail outlets, large pool deck, five different hotel options in the complex, and we are going to grow the next couple of years to almost double that size. So it will be 11 international hotel brands, 400 retail units, 200 restaurants. Something like this makes Macau a unique destination.

Macau is 16th at the ICCA Asia Pacific ranking. What is missing for Macau to climb up the ranking?

I think that all of the pieces are coming together. If you look at Macau’s growth path in MICE, it is quite impressive, one of the leading MICE growth areas in Asia. The integrated resort operators and the Macau government work together to promote Macau as an attractive destination. I think you will see Macau move up on those ranks in the next coming years quite quickly. Macau has a five year plan to become a world centre for tourism and leisure, and Galaxy Entertainment Group has the same vision. I mention the large resort we have now, we are building this international conference centre and arena, and I’m also in charge of a second integrated resort that sits right next to it. So there will be two large integrated resorts, and a conference centre and arena, and our goal as a company is to diversify our product offer and broaden our tourism base. Same goal as Macau. You need government and private business to be aligned. The government offers attractive incentives for MICE organisers, and with our new facility we will offer an all new other component MICE to Macau, that is really on a world class scale.

Can you talk about the conference centre project?

We set out a few years ago to build Asia’s most iconic and technological advanced centre. That was our mission. It is a combination of an international conference centre and a large scale arena. I’ll talk about the arena first. It’s a 16,000 seat multipurpose venue, which is one of the largest venues in Asia, and it does everything from world tour concerts, to sports events, to general purpose events of any type. And it’s built with acoustically perfect standards. And it is directly connected to the conference centre. Our international conference centre is highly flexible and is set up to handle all four segments of MICE, so we do expo, convention, conference, meeting and incentives. Our largest space is 10,000sqm of pillar-less floor for expo and other large events. Regarding technology and infrastructure we didn’t spare a dime. It’s as advanced as any conference centre in the world as far as ease of set up and access. And then above that we have a conference centre that has 31 rooms, including a ballroom, that can hold up to about 1,000 people for a formal event, and we also have a 650 seats plenary hall, that is world class, we can do everything from product launches to general sessions, to even cultural events. What makes this venue special is that on top of that we have a 700 key hotel. It’s a luxury lifestyle hotel. Logistics is quite short and convenient for the guest and all of that is wrapped up in an experience package that we think is really important. We are just taking a large step forward with this international conference centre, but we come from the hospitality side, so we have a view from MICE that maybe will be a little different from others in how we approach it. We want to make sure that our MICE experience is a little bit richer, a little deeper, in the service and product we provide, or in the decor, the storyline of the overall centre. We have an internal mantra called Asian Heart Service and it is what our company lives by. We talked about the Macau culture piece, you don’t have to leave the centre to experience that. We want to bring that through the entire experience through art, food, decor and everything else in the project. We want to expose delegates to this rich culture with an experience throughout the whole stay.

What kind of events are you targeting? Associations, corporate?

All of them, but we do have a particular strategy. We play at the premium end of the market, our hotels are all five stars luxury units, so when you look at what we do best and the core market that we go after, we are really best suited for corporate and incentives, because of this large integrated resorts and all the things that you can do. We have movie theatres, nightlife venues, and then mid-size association, and expo as tertiary niche.

And in terms of geographical markets? What are the plans?

We are part of a big population zone, so for us being so close to mainland China and connected to it, that’s really our primary goal, as it would be obvious. We are seeing continuous growth in the Greater Bay Area in terms of economic development and now with the bridge connecting it all… It doesn’t mean we are not going to be on international stages, because we have to be for expo and associations. We will ensure an international presence, we will go to Barcelona, to IMEX, but our focus is predominantly mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Taiwan, with secondary markets on southeast Asia, and then, like I said, some international presence in larger events.


Scott Kreeger

What makes this new venue different from the local offer? What’s its selling point?

I think we have some combined selling points on the destination: infrastructure, culture, great facilities. We are building a world-class facility, with the best technology, flexibility, but what differentiates us is our primary focus: technology and experience, because that’s what we do. One of the things that we’ve focused as well is how to take this experience to the next level from a planning standing point. So we have a group of people, we call it the Event Studio, who are not typical MICE planners, but experienced people, that actually go outside the box and explore the opportunities that exist and do something that is spectacular. Coming from the hospitality and entertainment side of things, we think taking that MICE experience to the next level is our competitive niche.

How do you see Macau evolving in the next few years in terms of MICE?

We are already on a very good trajectory towards becoming world centre for tourism and leisure. First, the government has a plan and that plan is backed by great incentives and promotions for organisers. Second, businesses and the integrated resorts operator in Macau continue to invest in MICE facilities. I think that’s important, we are just starting to understand that benefit and as time goes by that benefit will grow. Five years from now we will be able to do what any international destination does. I look at visitor numbers from the airports in the surrounding area, they are going through the roof, so I think our future is bright.

That connection to Portugal can open doors to European events?

Yes, we think so. There is an effort underway in this region to collaborate with the nine Portuguese speaking countries, so there is already a vehicle in place not only to Portugal but to a broader audience to collaborate and bring that forward. We intend to be a partner and a participant because it’s good business for all of us.

Cláudia Coutinho de Sousa*

*Travelled to IT&CMA invited by the organisation