With five airports and a plethora of convention centers and hotels, the Pearl River Delta area is a magnet for meetings/incentives/conventions/exhibition (MICE). But new venues like AsiaWorld-Expo near Hong Kong's international airport are now operational. How can the MSAR compete?

"The Macau government has been relentless in its effort to put the city on tourists map and enhance Macau's profile as a MICE center and entertainment attraction," said Lawrence Ho, chairman and CEO of Melco International Development Ltd. Ho added that governmental efforts included the organization of events like 2005's East Asian Games.

"The MGTO [Macau Government Tourist Office] has 17 overseas marketing offices, said MGTO director Joao Manuel Costa Antunes, "and they are our marketing and facilitation arms for international MICE marketing. Antunes added that his organization also advertises in regional MICE related magazines.

Antunes described Macau's MICE attendees as "two types, (1) small size incentive groups from Singapore/Taiwan/Japan/Malaysia etc with average size of 30-200+ pax, (2) bigger conventions/conferences from any country in the world."

"Macau is visa-free to some 64 countries and this eases arrival and immigration procedures for most international MICE attendees," added Antunes. "[With] the support and aggressive promotion of the Macau Government, the number of visitors to Macau from the Asia Pacific Region--especially China, Hong Kong and Taiwan--has skyrocketed," said Ho. "In 2005, accumulative arrivals in Macau hit 18.7 million, an increase of 12.3 percent compared to 2004."