Macau Daily Blog and News » celine dion

Celine hits the Cotai Strip

Editor — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:45:03 +0000

It doesnt get any bigger than Celine Dion. She’s been entertaining Vegas at Caesars for years, and now she has finally hit Macau’s Cotai Strip at the one and only Venetian Macao. The afterparty was almost as good as the actual event, as you can see from this Destination Macau video.

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Celine Dion Wows Macau Fans With Top Show

a2zMacau — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:54:07 +0000

Celine Dion didn’t disappoint fans last night at the Venetian Macao’s arena. The 15,000 seat venue was crammed with locals as well as many that traveled from Hong Kong and the mainland to see the “Taking Chances” tour.

Starting at just past 9pm, Dion gave fans a taste of her new album as well as wooing the audience with many of the old favorites. During the one and a half hour show, Dion changed wardrobe over five times. She performed more than 20 songs, saving the fans’ favorite until the end.

The title track to the movie “Titanic”, “My Heart Will Go On” brought the crowd to their feet during the one song encore.

During the show Dion chatted with the audience. She had spent the last three days in Macau, during which time she checked out some of the local tourist attractions, she told the audience.
Dion even learned some Mandarin for the occasion, thanking the crowd with the phrase “Xiexie”.

The tour, promoting the singers latest album, kicked off in Johannesburg, South Africa last month where she played to over 300,000 fans. The grueling schedule will see the Canadian perform more than 100 shows over the next year.

In a sign of the new status of Macau in the region, Dion skipped Hong Kong, traveling to Macau from Osaka, Japan.

Dion is also a favorite in the US gaming capital, Las Vegas. Beginning in 2003, the star sang five nights a week at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in a 4,000-seat arena designed specifically for her show.

“A 90-minute event, “A New Day” introduced a new form of theatrical entertainment, a fusion of song, performance art, innovative stage craft and state-of-the-art technology,” a press release states.

“Over the course of the shows record-breaking sold-out run, more than 3,000,000 people have seen Celine Dion’s “A New Day.”

The show took in approximately USD400 million according to promoters, making it “one of the highest concert grosses in music history”.

“A New Day” was created by Dragone Productions, who will also create a performance for the Cotai City of Dreams‘ development beginning next year.

From Macau, Dion will fly to Seoul, South Korea for two shows.

With Permission :: Macau Daily Times

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Celine Dion Hits Macau on “Taking Chances World” Tour

a2zMacau — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 02:19:57 +0000

One of the most recognized international talents, Celine Dion, will perform at the Venetian Arena on March 15.

Tickets are on sale from today and prices range from 800 to 2,500 patacas (US$100 - 325), check here for tickets :: Celine Dion in Macau.

After completing a four-year nightly performance in a five-star theatrical show at Caesars Palace, in Las Vegas in December last year, Celine launches her “Taking Chances World Tour” this month, hitting South Africa, Japan, Macau, Korea, Australia, Shanghai, Beijing, Europe, Canada and USA.

“Celine Dion is truly a legendary vocal artist in pop music history and the Venetian Macao is proud to bring her to Macau where her remarkable talents can be enjoyed by residents and visitors alike. I have no doubt that the people of Macau will share in the excitement of having this international super star perform her world-class act in our city. Stars of this caliber are rare but we aim to bring more and more of these top class performers to Macau,” said Mark Brown, president of Sands Macao and The Venetian Macao-Resort Hotel.

Her major international breakthrough was achieved with her song “Beauty and the Beast” in 1992, for which she was recognized with an Academy Award (Oscar) for best original song, and this was soon followed with Grammy Awards in the USA and World Music Awards in Europe. Another song with which Celine is closely associated is the unforgettable “My Heart Will Go On”, which has also brought her numerous awards and which smashed many records in the history of the music industry.

Celine performed at Hong Kong Kai Tak in 1999 and this tour in Macao marks her return to China after nine years.

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DRAGONE “City of Dreams” Show Looking For Personnel

a2zMacau — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 03:19:09 +0000

DRAGONE and the Melco PBL Entertainment Group have signed an agreement for the creation and production of a new permanent show at the “City of Dreams “, a new and luxurious hotel complex which will soon open in Macau (China).

This complex will offer no less than four top quality hotels as well as restaurants and luxury boutiques, a submarine casino, and a permanent international show created and produced by DRAGONE.

All of the partners in this important project (DRAGONE, HardRock International, Leighton-China State-John Holland as well as Hyatt International) are convinced that ” City of Dreams ” will attract a considerable number of visitors looking for the best in entertainment and leisure.

An independent theatre of about 2000 seats, conceived by the famous architect office Pei Partnership of New York, will be specifically built to welcome DRAGONE’s creation, whose permanent shows in Las Vegas (” A New Day ” with Celine Dion and ” Le Reve “) have already astounded several millions of spectators from around the world.

” City of Dreams ” will open in the second half of 2008. DRAGONE’s show will be ready as of March 2009 and run for several years.

The concept and production of this show will start in a few weeks within DRAGONE’s registered office in La Louvia (Belgium).

To complete this project, DRAGONE is hiring, as of now, many talented people in the creation and production of entertainment shows as well as artists. DRAGONE invites anyone interested to visit the site DRAGONE for more information.

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Lui Che Woo Goes It Alone in Macao

a2zMacau — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 11:06:12 +0000

You must give it to these guys, Sheldon Adelson, Dr. Stanley Ho and Lui Che Woo all multi-billionaires, in their seventies and still going for it like there is no tommorrow! The compassion, energy and the brilliant minds of these guys is a joy to watch, good on them, there is no sitting on their butts for these guys!

Lui Che Woo spells out some interesting observations in this article about his US counterparts trying to make Macau into another Las Vegas!

Galaxy Entertainment has a strategy that doesn’t include a U.S. partner and hopes to succeed by understanding what China’s players want

Full article courtesy Business Week | Galaxy Entertainment chairman Lui Che Woo sees himself as an underdog, albeit an extremely wealthy one. At 77, the Hong Kong billionaire who made his fortune in construction materials, hotels, and real estate development is now making the last major wager of his storied business career.

He is going double down on China’s new playground, the former Portuguese enclave and island leisure haven of Macao. To succeed, he will have to outsmart the U.S. casino developer Steve Wynn and Las Vegas Sands (LVS ) chairman Sheldon G. Adelson, who have spent billions there to chase Chinese punters.

Macao’s burgeoning casino market is the scene of a major rumble among the world’s big casino and resort development heavyweights. Aside from Wynn Resorts and Las Vegas Sands, MGM Mirage (MGM ), Australia’s entertainment and media company PBL, and local casino mogul Stanley Ho are all in expansion mode on the island.

WINNING CONCESSIONS. Macao generated $5.6 billion in gaming revenues last year compared to $3.5 billion in 2003. Investment bank UBS predicts Macao gross gaming revenues will top $10 billion by 2010 (see BusinessWeek.com, 9/5/06, “Macao Set to Trump Las Vegas in Gambling Biz”).

Four years ago, Hong Kong-based Galaxy Entertainment was one of the three consortia picked from 22 applicants for gaming concessions when the Macao government broke casino czar Stanley Ho’s decades-old monopoly on the territory. Each of the main licensees has the right to award sublicenses, and Macao now effectively has six separate casino licensees, including Ho.

Galaxy already has four casinos in Macao, up from zero three years ago. The latest, opened on Sept. 29, is the $410 million Grand Waldo, boasting 100 tables, 334 slot machines and another 68 tables in VIP rooms (decorated with huge dragons) for high rollers. A fifth Galaxy casino, a $345 million effort called Star World, will be tailored specifically for mainland China gamblers and is set to open on Oct. 19. It will lack the shopping malls, Celine Dion shows, and Western restaurants that are becoming a regular feature of Macao’s casino culture.

NEEDS A BODYGUARD? Galaxy currently has a 20% share of Macao’s gaming revenues and is spending another $1.1 billion to build the first phase of a more upscale Galaxy Mega Resort, a casino complex that could eventually cost more than $4 billion. It won’t be ready until the end of the decade. By then, Galaxy is hoping a segment of sophisticated mainland Chinese will be flocking to the resort.

Some analysts believe that without a strong Vegas partner, Galaxy is the most vulnerable of all casino operators in Macao and might eventually be gobbled up by one of the large U.S. players that don’t currently have a big footprint in Macao. “Galaxy seems to be the weakest of all concessionaires in its current form, lacking both branding and management experience of its global competitors as well as the network of its local competitors” says Kader Lim, a Citigroup gaming industry analyst in Hong Kong.

In a recent report, Grant Chum, a UBS gaming analyst in Hong Kong, described Galaxy as a firm “with no track record in the gaming industry and a highly leveraged start-up competing against the best-known operators in the industry.”

UNDERSTANDING CHINA. Not everyone agrees with that line of thinking. Galaxy “can still be a hugely profitable player if it carves itself a niche that others are overlooking,” says Jonathan V. Galaviz, a partner for Globalysis, a Las Vegas-based consulting firm. One of Macao’s greatest opportunities for future growth, says Galaviz, is in the mass-market consumer business. “No casino operator in Macao has yet been able to consistently draw mass-market punters. If Galaxy can develop products, services, and customer loyalty within the mass-market segment, it would cement its long-term market position.”

For his part, Lui says his U.S. competitors and most critics don’t understand his strategy. “I am Chinese and I understand what the China market wants,” he said during a recent interview with BusinessWeek.com. Lui says there is a misguided conception among U.S.-based casino operators as well as industry insiders that Macao is just an Asian version of Las Vegas.

Operators such as Sands and Wynn want to build projects with all the bells and whistles and hope people will come. In Vegas, a typical visitor checks in to a five-star hotel, has a martini, goes to a show, has dinner, plays a game of golf, and pops into the casino, or is a convention delegate who attends seminars, does some networking and sightseeing, and then maybe kills some time in a casino, according to Lui. “There are many who do go to Vegas for nothing else but gambling, but they are a small portion of the total,” he says.

In Macao, says Lui, “most people come for one thing and one thing alone: They come to gamble.” That’s especially true of mainland Chinese, who now form 70% of the total gamblers at most Macao casinos. Chinese gamblers tend to come in for 12- to 16-hour swings and want to spend money at the tables—not on fancy hotel rooms or shopping.

Lui says Galaxy has a step-by-step strategy that retains its flexibility, depending on how the Macao market eventually develops. Galaxy has entered the lucrative VIP segment through its small cozy city club casinos. It has tailored the Star World to Chinese day-trippers and will enter the luxury market over the long run through Mega Resort. It is not aiming for the full-blown casino, retail and convention complex that operators such as Sands have developed. “There is no point in imitating Sands or MGM or Wynn, because that’s not what the mainland punters want,” says Lui.

A BED TO SLEEP IN. As things stand now, a huge short-term glut in hotel rooms is looming in Macao, which currently has more than 12,500 rooms. By the end of next year, that figure will more than double. Mainland Chinese now make up more than 60% of visitors to Macao and nearly 70% of the gamblers. Half of Macao visitors are day-trippers who return to Hong Kong or China when they are done with gambling or sightseeing, and don’t need hotel rooms. That’s why Galaxy is focusing on basic three- or four-star rooms at pared-down prices.

Lui says hotels attached to Galaxy casinos have rooms that are “good-sized, not too large because the people from Shenzhen or Guangzhou just want a bed to sleep on.” While some of his U.S. competitors are building rooms that are greater than 800 sq. ft., or about the size of small Hong Kong apartment, “the market for top-end guests is very small,” Lui adds. “We are targeting the medium and lower-end segment, which we think will be 90% of the business.”

Lui says he learned the model from Toyota, which excels at selling affordable, quality cars. “We could make a Mercedes or BMW and be a niche player, but we would rather be a Toyota of Macao,” he says.

NOT FOR SALE. The strategy is winning over some early skeptics. “Galaxy,” says UBS analyst Chum, “believes it is offering what the market wants, while foreign operators are building what they think the market should have.” The company, he adds, “is pursuing a lower-risk strategy, especially as the Las Vegas-style product is much more capital-expenditure intensive.”

Because Galaxy is perceived as a weak player, there has been speculation that it will eventually be taken over by a strong global partner. Malaysian casino operator Genting (GEBEY )—which has a 4% stake in Galaxy—has been mentioned, as has Harrah’s Entertainment (HET ), now in the process of being taken over by a U.S. private equity consortium. “We have had many approaches, but we are not selling,” says Lui.

Not everyone buys that, given the cash outlays Galaxy needs in the years ahead to be a dominant player in Macao. “The possibility that Galaxy could enter into a significant strategic alliance with a large corporation for the development of product offerings in Macao should not be discounted,” says Globalysis’ Galaviz. However things turn out, it’s clear that Lui plans to finish his career in grand fashion.

Assif Shameen covers Southeast Asia for BusinessWeek.com from Singapore

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Wynn’s sleek style to stand out in Macau

a2zMacau — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 10:07:11 +0000

A very interesting article about Wynn Resort in Las Vegas, even though it is not related to Macau, this story will still give us a real insight in what we can expect from Steve Wynn in Macau.

Let’s face it Steve Wynn has made Las Vegas, like Stanley Ho has made Macau what it is today, so it will be interesting how Steve Wynn is going to shape up Macau in the next 5 years or so.

By JOHN MOORE, from TORONTO STAR

Wynn’s Sleek Style Stands Out On The Strip

Nobody since gangster Bugsy Siegel in the 1940s has done more to make Las Vegas what it is today than magnate Steve Wynn.

With his clutch of developments from the venerable Golden Nugget to the innovative Mirage and Treasure Island to the super-splendid Bellagio — each surpassing the last in opulence — he has reshaped the city. Some love it, others despise it: Robert De Niro’s character scorned it as “Disneyland” in the movie Casino.

But it’s hard to argue with success: more than 38 million people visited Vegas last year, chasing the lure of easy money for sure, but also to experience the lavish lifestyle … if only for a few days.

Wynn’s Las Vegas resort — the $2.7-billion fantasy palace which opened in April, 2005 — is the pinnacle of that trend (at least until the next one comes along).

Isolated from the clamour of the Strip behind a 45-metre-high tree-and-bush-covered wall, the main building is striking: A gleaming, burnished gold crescent that stands out even among the volcanoes, mini-Eiffel Towers and sphinxes that populate Las Vegas Blvd. Inside, a waterfall cascades 20 metres into a sculpture-filled pool that forms the centrepiece of a nightly light show.

The hotel interior really is another world. While in most Vegas hotels you’re assaulted by blaring neon, Wynn’s interior is gracefully decorated in soft colours with whimsical upside-down parasols hanging from the ceilings, mosaics adorning the floors and a profusion of flowers everywhere, all bathed in natural light from the atrium.

Even the casino — the heart of any Vegas hotel — seems understated.

“It’s quieter in here,” said Bill Hobbs of Wisconsin as he punched away at the buttons of a Blazing 7s machine. “It seems like the slots aren’t clanging away like they do in all the other casinos.”

When you check in, you get a credit-card sized pouch that contains your room card — and a map to help you navigate through the property. It may take a while to find your room, but the effort’s worth it. The rooms and suites have the feel of ultra-chic apartments, with floor-to-ceiling windows that give a dazzling view of the Strip and the mountains beyond.

Room décor includes reproductions of paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Gauguin and many others from Wynn’s private collection (displayed in the hotel’s art gallery).

There’s a huge, wall-mounted flat-screen high-definition television as well as all the playthings that any business person could imagine — mobile phones, fax machines and high-speed Internet.

The bathrooms, which are enormous and also contain a TV, have marble soaking tubs, glass shower cubicles, bathrobes, cosmetics tables and mirrors and a separate room for the toilet … equipped with telephone, of course.

There’s even a mini-bar, a rarity in Vegas since most hotels would rather have you impairing your judgment at the gaming tables than in your room.

But be careful of the little snack tray on the table by the bar. It comes with a warning, and not about the health hazards of its selection of “gourmet” potato chips, jelly beans or chocolate chip cookies.

Go ahead and check out the products, it tells you, but if you lift them off the tray and don’t put them back within 60 seconds, you might just as well dig in — a sensor located under each item will already have charged it to your account.

For more substantial fare, the resort has 15 restaurants featuring, among others, Italian, Japanese, Southeast Asian and French cuisines.

I had dinner at celebrity chef Daniel Boulud’s Brasserie — home of the $32 hamburger, stuffed with truffles, short ribs and foie gras and, yes, you do get fries with that — while enjoying the light show on the waterwall.

Blockbuster shows have been a major part of Wynn’s success story.

Here, you’ll find La Rêve, created by Cirque du Soleil and Celine Dion impressario Franco Dragone; Avenue Q closed in May, and, in 2007, the Tony Award-winning Monty Python musical Spamalot will open in a specially-built theatre.

And what would a luxury hotel be without its own Ferrari/Maserati dealership?

Yep, right in the basement you can pick up a smooth new ride or have your old one fixed: There’s a full-service repair and body shop which, with its gleaming white tiles, looks about as much like a garage as I look like Brad Pitt. You almost expect the mechanics to be decked out in tuxedos.

With all that — plus a Tom Fazio-designed golf course for the exclusive use of resort guests (greens fee — $500), spa and fitness facilities, business and convention services, etc. — the knock against Wynn’s is that it’s too luxurious and it’s taking Vegas into a realm inhabitated only by the uber-rich.

That may be — Donald Trump is opening an exclusive condominum-hotel complex on the Strip in 2008 — but it seems that in Vegas, the sky truly is the limit.

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