Last month marked a momentous occasion for Las Vegas; on 2 December the maiden voyage of Hainan Airlines’ new non-stop flight arrived from Beijing and landed at McCarran International Airport at 11am local time.
The 12 hour flight, serviced by a Boeing 787 with a Kung Fu Panda motif adorning the plane’s cabins, served as the announcement of Hainan Airlines’ formal launch of their new regular route. It will operate Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and is expected to generate US$33.5 million annually in direct visitor spending.
Its not a case of East Meets West, but rather East Goes West. China is expected to become Nevada’s number one tourism market by 2020. McCarran Airport has recently implemented a China Ready program which includes Chinese signage, six Mandarin-speaking ambassadors and a WeChat presence.
Nevada’s Department of Commerce notes that in 2015, there were 2.6M Chinese travelers to the US, and the estimates are a steady growth to 5M by 2020. The Chinese have proved to be the highest spending group among their international visitors, parting with between USD6,000 and 7,000 per person, per trip.
And the airport is not the only one making preparations. The Lucky Dragon Hotel and Casino, an Asian-themed boutique hotel located at the end of the Strip is the newest property to open in the last 6 years. They’re anticipating a surge in Chinese tourism to Vegas and their aim is to win over China’s growing middle class.
Other hotel casinos have lavish theatres and globally recognized entertainers. But with its five Asian-themed restaurants, upscale spa, 203 guest rooms and small-scale (27,500 square feet), Lucky Dragon is hard-focused on dining and playing. There’s no live entertainment to speak of, no sports book, no bingo parlor, and no poker room. Instead of show girls, this hotel has dragons – many of them – which together with the octagon-shaped casino are geared to depict good fortune to their Chinese visitors. The hottest acts are in their show kitchen, which produces authentic Chinese food which appeals to not only their Chinese clientele, but to Americans who are fed up with American Chinese food and want to experience the real McCoy.
The hotel’s complimentary cocktails are made with a twist; Bloody Mary for example is garnished with a steamed chicken foot on top. But generally the Lucky Dragon understands that the Chinese guest tends to prefer tea over cocktails, so they have a traditional tea service in all the lounges.
Simply and obviously, the target is the Asian market, or those who appreciate that culture. That the front-of-house staff speaks Cantonese and Mandarin along with English, and the duality of the directional signage in Chinese and English are already well-known facets of Lucky Dragon. “Everybody is all over the new concept that the Chinese are coming, the Asians are coming to Las Vegas; we need to be prepared for that language in signage and we have addressed that from the start,” the Lucky Dragon President says. “The other hotels, McCarran Airport, everyone needs to catch up and accommodate this huge Asian population.”
Well, what, I wonder, does this all mean for Macau? 5 million is small potatoes compared with the many millions that make up the Motherland, but with these direct flights how, if anything, will this impact our business? Are we going to see a gradual drip, drip waning of gamers’ interest as they are being lured away from our shores?
January 21, 2017
