Since travel restrictions were lifted in March 2023, Sands Resorts Macao has deployed significant efforts to rebuild its business events sector.
The team has been travelling to tradeshows such as IMEX Vegas, IMEX Frankfurt, and IT&CM Asia, to promote Sands Resorts Macao and the city’s offerings.
When asked how business was shaping up, Kris Kaminsky, senior vice president of hotel operations at Sands China, told TTGmice that regional business looks really strong.
“We see a lot of short-term leads, mostly from China and Asia Pacific,” he shared.
He pointed out that international opportunities beyond 2025 to 2027 are “huge”, as many of Sands’ customers are restarting their event rotation. For instance, an event will be held in the US in one year, then it moves to Europe, and Asia.
“Hence, there are many potentials for international business events in the next three-year cycle. These events will be driven more by industry than geography. For example, US-based global technology companies with a large footprint in Asia are looking at hosting events at Sands’ properties,” Kaminsky elaborated.
Events Sands Resorts Macao has secured for 2024 include a homegrown tech conference named BEYOND, and Global Gaming Expo in June 2024. According to Kaminsky, both exhibitions are returnees Macau, and are expected to be bigger and better next year.
Sands has also been working towards luring industry and technical associations to beef up the sector. One of Kaminsky’s priorities is to ensure that these associations are aware of Macau’s attractive destination policies such as incentives and visa-free travel.
As part of this push, Sands Resorts Macao recently conducted a five-day familiarisation trip, Sands Lifestyle #ReDiscover Macao 2023, which brought to the fore the integrated resort’s extensive business events capabilities, as well as 25 local incentive experiences to choose from.
Options for participants included a dine-around programme across Sands Resorts Macao’s many restaurants, an evening visit to Taipa Village, a 2.5-hour incense workshop at the Veng Lei Laboratory, and an eight-kilometre hike along Coloane.
Of the many options, Kaminsky said: “These days, every traveller has a different need and preference, so we left the fam trip option up to the delegates, be it seeing more of Macau, or more of our facilities. I hope that the delegates were able to find something that suited their preferences, seeing that this is the way people will be travelling in the future.”
