Shun Tak: Softer performance of luxury shopping apparent

By
macaubusinessdaily

Amid the city’s half-year slowdown in gaming revenue growth, luxury shopping businesses here have been experiencing a notable pinch in sales. This is evident, for example, in the high-end fashion shopping complex at One Central, which will only likely post a better performance after the first half of next year. Vincent Tung, director of the group marketing department of Shun Tak Holdings Ltd, made the remark yesterday on the sidelines of an event.
The days of clients spending millions of patacas on shopping in one trip are no longer. The luxury fashion shopping mall at One Central has seen a drop in the average spending of clients this year so far, Mr. Tung told media on the sidelines of a 15th MSAR handover celebratory anniversary event at Macau Tower yesterday.
One Central, a joint venture between shipping and property development conglomerate Shun Tak and Hongkong Land Holdings Ltd, comprises a luxury shopping complex, high-end residential towers and Mandarin Oriental Hotel. The waterfront property is also joined to the MGM Macau casino-resort.
“We can still maintain [customer] traffic as compared to last year,” Mr. Tung remarked. “But as reflected by our tenants, per customer spending has definitely dropped…some of them [tenants] are experiencing a double-digit drop in business.”
Mr. Tung, who also organises the Macau Shopping Festival, believes that the retail performance in the city will look better by the second half of next year following the new casino-resort projects of Galaxy Entertainment Group and Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd coming online, where more new shopping facilities will open.
According to official data from the Statistics and Census Service, the volume of retail sales here has decreased by 2 per cent for the third quarter after removing the effect of price changes, where double-digit decrease were previously seen in the sale of watches and jewellery as well as leather goods.
“For the past 10, 15 years, the objective has been to make visitors stay longer. And that objective is still valid at this moment,” Mr. Tung said. “Our challenge is to actually add more attractions for visitors, so eventually they will stay for two nights and move around Macau – on the Peninsula or Cotai. If shopping can be fully developed as another attraction supporting gaming, I think everybody can benefit.”