KOREASCHOLAR

Since the liberalization of gaming industry in 2002, Macau has become the leading destination for gaming, leisure and entertainment in Asia. Recently, few large-scaled integrated resorts (IRs) have been established and opened to public, bringing more diversified destinations for visitors in Macau. These include casino, hotel, food and beverage, retail, entertainment, etc. With this, there is no doubt that IR operators have to understand how consumers behave and respond to value added products in the IRs. Differentiating one IR from another raises the significance of innovating resort products to retain existing consumers and attract new ones. This research has investigated the impact of potential non-gaming value added products at Venetian Macao Resort on consumers’ patronage and has identified what key subitems can be added to stimulate consumers’ feedback and make them revisit the resort, recommend it to others or be interested in visiting it someday. Questionnaire was designed according to the structural equation modeling (SEM). Results proved the importance of potential value added products at Venetian Macao Resort in influencing consumers’ intention. Based on the findings, suggestions were offered to the management group of Venetian Macao Resort for its future implementation of value added products. Moreover, the results will encourage other IRs in Macau to improve further towards the goal of shaping Macau in becoming a world class tourist destination. First time visitors are more likely to consume in the areas of hotel, retail and casino, while multi-time visitors would prefer to spend on hotel, retail and F&B. To some extent, implies that casino does not seem to be the key activity to make the previous guests return. In addition, spending in hotel, retail and F&B are ranked high on visitors’ preferences, indicating that visitors at Venetian Macao Resort are willing to have diversified consumptions in the non-gaming areas. Moreover, the ways of value adding in terms of promotional pricing, new technology application, upgrading of products, customization and rewarding system can be used frequently as references for the future product improvement at the resort.

• Kerry Li(University of Macau, Macau)
• Joseph Sy-Changco(University of Macau)