The second day of the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia 2016 remained vibrant and hectic with more trade visitors coming in at the Venetian Macau on its 10th year.
Asia’s one-stop destination for gaming and entertainment decision makers and suppliers has scaled to new heights with figures increasing by the day. G2E Asia 2016 welcomed almost 8,600 trade visitors on its first two days alone. That’s a 9 percent increase compared with the same period last year.
The conference sessions today featured high-level industry leaders and influencers. Paulo Chan, director of the Gaming Inspection and Coordinate Bureau (DCIJ), turned his attention to evaluating the trends and underlying opportunities within the markets in changing conditions.
Bloomberg Intelligence’s Catherine Lim and Margaret Huang presented these changes among the Chinese customer profile travelers who are shaping the future of the Macau tourism.
Huang highlighted Chinese millennials demographic who loves traveling, and whom she said casino operators must take an active role into providing facilities to address the growing importance of non-gaming factors in Macau such as retail, hotels, restaurants and entertainment.
According to Huang, casino operators must understand the trends this new market segment is into, which are:
1. Technology and Social Media
a. 92% of Chinese aged 18-30 owned a smart phone; 50% use mobile booking, 69% use social media, 57% use smartphone 4-5 times a day
b. Wechat and Weibo sharing experience: 27% rely on this referral. Only few operators use this outlet to market
2. Sense of Adventure and Individuality
a. Millennials favor freedom over tour groups with 58% that prefer to travel independently seeking deeper cultural experiences
b. Sightseeing, Dining and Shopping are the most predominant reasons for travel
c. Local, authentic flavors that are less mainstream
3. Family Trips or Small Groups of Friends
a. Shows, activities, themed attractions, boutique hotels, immersive cultural experiences.
Lim adds that millennials are the highest spenders, and they came from more affluent backgrounds. She also stated the studies showed the Chinese millennials specifically are willing to spend double than their Asia-Pacific peers. She concludes that Macau casino operators and businesses should tap into millennials as it is the perfect market segment for non-gaming activities.
She also added that Macau may no longer be the retailers’ paradise and suggested to businesses to invest on trends such as tech to appeal to Millennials. As of 2015, only 7% of the revenues in Macau comes from non-gaming activities which gives businesses an excellent opportunity for growth in its revenue.
Understanding millennials’ profile, their behavior and the trends they follow is not only recommended to Macau casino operators and businesses but as well as other markets within Asia. Providing unique and affordable offering to this market segment may not only boost spending habits by the millennials but also encourage other demographic under a different bracket which may lead to the rise of entertainment revenues.
