The expanded shopping mall at the City of Dreams Macau casino resort (pictured) partially opened on Friday, according, respectively, to a promotional email issued by the property and its social media accounts.
The promotional email said that additions to The Boulevard – as the mall is known – include new facilities at T Galleria by DFS, a luxury retailer within the mall area. The new facilities include what was referred to as “T Galleria by DFS’ first-ever shoe salon” spread over two floors.
The email said also that brands added to The Boulevard included Aquazzura, Botega Veneta, Moncler, Rupert Sanderson, Tod’s and Valentino, “with many more to arrive in the near future”.
There is additionally in the mall extension a zone dedicated to men’s “lifestyle”, with multiple brands of product covering ready-to-wear clothing, accessories, shoes, watches and grooming products.
GGRAsia approached the resort’s operator Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd for more information on the launch, but had not received a reply by the time this story was posted online.
Lawrence Ho Yau Lung, chairman and chief executive of Melco Crown, had said in an interview in March with a Hong Kong cable television channel that the expanded shopping mall at City of Dreams Macau was due to open in the middle of the year. Mr Ho added that Melco Crown would enhance the proportion of retail business in its non-gaming offerings.
In Macau, Melco Crown operates the City of Dreams, Altira and Studio City casino resorts.
Non-gaming is a hot topic in Macau, as the government seeks to diversify the local economy and shift the city’s traditional dependence on hardcore, often high stakes, gambling. Part of the reason is that such gambling has diminished in scope, coinciding, investment analysts say, with China’s ongoing anti-graft campaign.
Under the Macau government’s proposed Five-Year Development Plan – a recently-announced package of social and economic policies for the city covering the period 2016 to 2020 – the authorities want to see non-gaming revenue at the city’s casino resorts rise as a proportion of all revenue.
By 2020 the Macau government wishes to see such non-gaming revenue account on average for at least 9 percent of all revenue generated by casino operators, compared to an estimated 6.6 percent in 2014.
Andy Choy, chief gaming officer for Melco International Development Ltd, an investor in Melco Crown, noted during a conference session of the recent Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia held in Macau, that Chinese customers to Macau resorts “overwhelmingly” wanted gaming.
“In an environment where you are motivated purely by satisfying your customers, that would dictate that you would spend your investment dollars primarily on the gaming product,” stated Mr Choy.
In May, Melco Crown reported a 34 percent year-on-year decline in profit for the first quarter of 2016.
