Macau is an increasingly attractive destination for mainland visitors, especially the nouveau riche. Indeed, the territory now challenges “Asia’s world city”, Hong Kong on its own turf: services, entertainment, and shopping (click to enlarge chart).

In 2006, Hong Kong welcomed 13.5 million mainland tourists, just 1.6 million more than Macau.

Tourist agencies are kept busy

That lead is likely to narrow as mainland tourists are drawn to the increasing number of alternative entertainment options on offer in Macau.

After all, it remains the only place in China where casinos are legal.

In 2006, the earnings of its casino industry exceeded that of Las Vegas (US$6 billion), prompting Las Vegas Sands chairman Sheldon Adelson to quip that Las Vegas should be called “America’s Macau”. Little wonder that Macau hotels have been scrambling to build their room capacity; from 12,850 to over 44,000 in five years!

Visit both our stores

Advertisers have not missed this shift. The fine print of the advertisement announcing the arrival of NEXT (shown on left) for instance, lists its new store addresses in both territories.

Be sure that the tourism and development boards of both cities will be watching China’s big-spenders very closely.

If there continues to be a seismic shift in mainland tourists to Macau, not only will tourist dollars migrate across the South China Sea, so will advertising dollars.