As a brand, the Venetian Macao needs little assistance. The glitzy, US$2.4 billion sibling of the Venetian Las Vegas has dominated headlines since it began taking shape in 2004.
On the eve of its opening, the establishment was already widely seen as a much bigger, grander, and more over-the-top version of its American counterpart: an epicentre of 3,000 luxury suites, a 350-shop retail strip, a purpose-built theatre for the Cirque du Soleil, 400-seater Cotai waterjets that transport guests from Hong Kong to the resort’s doorstep and three indoor canals.
Oh, and a casino, of course.
Thus, the Venetian’s four-month SVP of destination marketing, Aliana Ho, has mostly left branding duties to her internal team and communications partners Ogilvy & Mather, Fleishman-Hillard and OMD. Her directions are succinct: change the perception that the Venetian is just a casino. “People normally associate Macau with gaming, as a place without much to do,” she says. “So a key challenge is building awareness for the Venetian as an integrated resort.”
Most of this, admittedly, will come through adaptations of Las Vegas’ look and feel, at least in the beginning. The trickier issue comes with the Venetian’s far-flung target markets: China, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and, of course the West. Fortunately, the Chinese-Canadian is used to bridging cultural divides, having split her career between North America and Asia.
In reality, Ho’s more pressing marketing concern - the accessibility of Macau - is highlighted by the location of the interview itself. Trapped in Hong Kong during the city’s second typhoon of the summer, the marketer can’t hide her exasperation as she peers out the 59th-floor window of the Conrad Hotel, overlooking Hong Kong’s stormy skyline.
“Where will our visitors stay if they are trapped in Hong Kong during a typhoon?” she frets. “A major challenge for me is accessibility; how people get to their destination,” she says.
“Everybody’s travel experience starts when they begin packing. There are many things we can’t control - we can only try our very best to maximise their experience once they board our Cotai waterjet. These days, people are time-impoverished. Making the journey as seamless as we can is extremely important.”
To do so means resigning to the fact that, for the time being, Hong Kong will be the main connection point to Macau. “We’re working with the Macau Government to expand the airport, but it will take time. For the near future, we can only try our very best to make the connection as seamless as possible,” says Ho.
But her diplomatic efforts with the Government don’t end there. The Venetian Macao came under fire earlier last month, when Hong Kong daily South China Morning Post reported that the casino’s expatriate head of security was dismissed, allegedly due to local Government pressure to appoint a local for the top position.
Ho remains predictably tight-lipped regarding the story, emphasising that the tourism development “benefits the locals as much as visitors”.
“As far as I am concerned, we do not differentiate locals from non-locals in terms of employment. Anyone who has the talent and fits into the corporate culture will fly, regardless of race, gender or nationality,” she says.
But no doubt Ho will be on the receiving end of many more difficult questions over the course of the next few years. The Venetian, after all, is just the beginning. As part of expansion plans for the Las Vegas Sands, which owns the Venetian, Ho will also oversee back-to-back openings of the Four Seasons, Shangri-La and Traders hotels. “By the time everything is complete we’ll have almost 20,000 hotel rooms on the Cotai strip,” she notes.
Meanwhile, Ho will also have to face off major competitors such as the W Macao Studio City, which opens in mid-2009, and a new casino from magnate Steve Wynn. But after nearly 10 years spent promoting Hong Kong post-1997 handover as well as during the Sars crisis, Ho feels prepared for anything. “For any tourism professional, this job is the ultimate,” she says.
“I feel very lucky to be able to do something like this, at this point of my life, which puts all my experiences into perspective in order to market such a destination.”
Aliana Ho’s CV
2007 SVP of destination marketing, Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel
2004 General manager of tourism marketing, Hong Kong Tourism Board
1998 Director of tourism, Eastern US, Canada, South America, Hong Kong Tourism Board
