INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH

Int. J. Tourism Res. 15, 5265 (2013)

Published online 13 September 2011 in Wiley Online Library

(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jtr.873

Sustainability of Tourism Development in

Macao, China
Yim King Penny Wan1,* and Xiangping Li2
1
Assistant Professor, Hospitality and Gaming Management, Faculty of Business Administration, University of
Macau, Av. Padre Toms Pereira Taipa, Macao, China
2
Assistant Professor, Institute for Tourism Studies, Colina de Mong-Ha, Macao, China
ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

To maximize the benets to stakeholders

in Macao, the sustainability of Macao
tourism was examined by assessing the
economic, socio-cultural and environmental
impacts of tourism, visitor satisfaction and
the level of community involvement in
local tourism planning from 2002 to 2009,
through the use of primary and secondary
data. The results revealed that tourism did
bring both positive and negative impacts
to the community. Visitor satisfaction was
found to be moderate. Channels for
community participation in local tourism
development were also lacking. The paper
suggests that for sustainable tourism
development, Macao needs to diversify
away from its casino industry, to speed up
the construction of the public transport
system and to keep monitoring the
environmental conditions, the students
drop-out and crime rate and the locals
quality of life. More importantly, a master
plan for its tourism development integrating
all the key stakeholders interests is urgently
required. Copyright 2011 John Wiley &
Sons, Ltd.

ince the late 1980s, the concept of sustainable development has become a primary
theme in planning and development in response to the global concern over the degradation
of the worlds natural resources due to economic
development (Hall, 2000). The concept also
brings issues of social equity and environmental
sustainability to the forefront of the planning
process by striving for a more balanced approach
that takes account of environmental concerns,
community interests and business interests (Hall,
2000).
Concerns about sustainable tourism development arise due to recognition of the fact that
tourism is a resource-intensive industry, which
involves a form of human activities, causes signicant economic, social and environmental
impacts to local communities, and affects the
overall experiences of visitors (Lu and Nepal,
2009). The concept therefore seeks to manage
changes by striking a balance between protecting the environment, maintaining cultural
integrity and promoting economic benets
(Jayawardena et al., 2008:258) with the aim to
satisfy the needs of tourists and to ensure
long-term viability benecial to both the
tourist industry and the local host communities
(Sheldon and Abenoja, 2001).
Although there is abundant research on sustainable tourism development, fewer studies
have employed the existing indicators to measure and document the development of sustainable tourism (Choi and Sirakaya, 2006; Smith,
1995). This study therefore hopes to ll in this
research gap by examining how sustainable
tourism development is in Macao by employing sustainable indicators. Macao is now a
world-famous gaming capital in China, which

Received 13 May 2010; Revised 12 July 2011; Accepted 17 July 2011

Keywords: Stakeholder theory; sustainability;

tourism; Macao; China.

* Correspondence to: Yim King Penny Wan, Hospitality and

Gaming Management, Faculty of Business Administration,
University of Macau, Av. Padre Toms Pereira Taipa, Macau,
China.
E-mail: pennywan@umac.mo

Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Sustainability of Tourism Development in Macao

is currently experiencing tourism and casino
boom. The ndings will shed light on the sustainability issues in Macao and provide suggestions and recommendations. The case of Macao
can also be a reference for other tourist destinations, especially those with gaming facilities.
SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT
AND STAKEHOLDER THEORY
Sustainability is an important topic in tourism
development, partly due to the fact that there
is no other form of economic development that
could have so many far-reaching tentacles as
tourism (Gunn, 1994, p.16). In other words,
tourism development would inevitably exert
effects, both positive and negative, on the destination. Therefore, if planned improperly,
tourism development could destroy the very
resources tourism development is based on in
a community. For tourism development to be
successful, it must be planned and managed
in a sustainable manner (Choi and Sirakaya,
2006; Jayawardena et al., 2008).
Tourism literature offers a multitude of denitions for sustainable tourism development.
A commonly adopted view is that the natural
and man-made environments must be protected, and the quality of host communities
must be enhanced in order to optimize the
long-term economic viability of tourism development. The World Tourism Organization
(WTO) (1998:21) denes sustainable tourism
development as that which
[. . .] meets the needs of present tourist
and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunities for the future. It is
envisaged as leading to management of
all resources in such a way that economic,
social, and aesthetic needs can be fullled
while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems.
Thus, sustainable tourism can be interpreted
as a development model designed to attend to
the needs and interests of (i) the present tourist,
as it makes an effort to meet their needs; (ii) the
host regions, as it aims at improving quality of
life of those who reside in a tourism destination; (iii) the tourism resources management;
and (iv) the future tourist and host regions.
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

53
These parties mentioned are termed as stakeholders. Goeldner and Ritchie (2008) also stated that the main goal of sustainable tourism
development is providing high-quality visitor
experiences that can maximize the benets to
destination stakeholders without compromising environmental, social, and cultural integrity of destination. Therefore, it is essential for
destinations to integrate these diverse stakeholders. Since tourism development could inuence and be inuenced by so many groups,
taking all these parties into consideration is
critical for a successful and sustainable development (Gunn, 1994; Nicholas et al., 2009).
The concept of stakeholder has originated
from management literature. It has become a
prominent topic since Freemans (1984) seminary book on stakeholder approach. Freeman
(1984) dened a stakeholder as any group or
individual who can affect or is affected by the
achievement of the organizations objectives
(p.46). The stakeholders could include employees, customers, suppliers, governments and
members of the communities. Since Freemans
rst work on stakeholder theory, literatures on
stakeholder theory have been ourishing. Simply interpreted from a managerial perspective,
the stakeholder theory speculated that the various stakeholders can and should have a direct
inuence on managerial decision making
(Jones, 1995). In addition, the normative basis
of the stakeholder theory, which is the core of
the theory, proposed that all the stakeholders
should be identied, and all stakeholders
should be treated as an end, meaning their
interests should be considered (Donaldson
and Preston, 1995). Stakeholder approach has
been served as a theoretical framework for
sustainable tourism development since 1990s
(Byrd et al., 2009; Gunn, 1994; Sautter and
Leisen, 1999; Tkaczynski et al., 2009; Yang,
2011). As Robson and Robson (1996) put
forward, for tourism business to incorporate stakeholders into the decision-making
process, stakeholders need to be identied.
The identication of who are the stakeholders
for a destination differs. WTOs (1998) denition suggested that a destinations stakeholders are present and future tourists and
host regions, the organizations responsible
for the tourism resources management.
Goeldner and Ritchie (2008) considered
Int. J. Tourism Res. 15, 5265 (2013)
DOI: 10.1002/jtr

54
tourists, residents, entrepreneurs and local government ofcials as important stakeholders.
Based on the WCEDs WTOs denition on sustainable tourism development, Byrd (2007)
identied four distinct stakeholders: the
present visitors, future visitors, present host
community, and future host community. The
host community can be further divided into
residents, business owners and government
ofcials. In the study by Byrd et al., 2009, in a
rural community in eastern North Carolina,
they named four different stakeholder groups:
residents, entrepreneurs, government ofcials
and tourists. Although the stakeholders are
not the same across destinations, in general,
the key stakeholders should include tourists,
local residents, tourist businesses and government; this is applied in this research with
Macao as the study area.
After the key stakeholders are identied, a
clear understanding of the needs and interests
of each stakeholder is a necessary precursor to
the effective adoption of stakeholder approach,
thus a successful planning and management of
sustainable tourism (Byrd, 2007; Byrd et al.,
2009). Studies attempting to understand the
attitudes and perceptions of each important
stakeholder focus on the interrelationship of
tourism with the society as well as the multiplicity of dimensions of impact assessment on
host community, visitor satisfaction and institutional arrangements for public participation
in the tourism development process.
Impact assessment
Sustainable tourism must be economically
viable, environmentally sensitive and socioculturally appropriate. Policy makers must
make an effort to maximize the positive
impacts and benets and minimize the adverse
ones. A scheme or assessment is needed to help
reduce the tension and friction ensured from
the evident complex interactions among the
tourism industry, tourists, the environment
and the host communities (Bramwell and Lane,
1993).
Although there is abundant research on sustainable tourism development, relatively small
part this literature has provided empirical and
practical indicators to measure the goal of sustainable tourism (Choi and Sirakaya, 2006;
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Y. K. P. Wan and X. Li
Smith, 1995). Without quantitative measures,
the concept of sustainability would remain as
an idealistic and vague goal(Smith, 1995).
Among the efforts in quantifying the objectives
of sustainable tourism development, Choi and
Sirakaya (2006):1286) collected opinions from
specialists who devised a set of measurable
criteria as follows: ecologically responsible, socially compatible, culturally appropriate, politically equitable, technologically supportive,
and, nally, economically viable for the host
community. Similar indicators are developed
by Lim and Cooper (2009) for sustainable
island tourism. They identied 20 indicators
and grouped them into four categories, namely,
measurement of economic impacts, environmental issues, social impacts and attitude
and mega trends.
Community participation
If local needs are to be met, sustainable tourism
requires the participation of local communities
(Hall, 2000; Jayawardena et al., 2008). It is because sustainable tourism development aims
to nd an optimal way of enhancing the communitys natural, social and cultural environmental features and contribute to the social
and cultural well being of its communities
and residents. As there is no formula to calculate what the optimal way is because each society has its unique circumstances and what is
an optimal way represents a value orientation
(Hall and Lew, 1998), dialogues among different stakeholders are needed to achieve the
community consensus (Hall and Lew, 1998).
Getting the community involved also has the
benet of creating a sense of ownership over
decision making and feeling more positive toward tourism development (Murphy, 1983).
To achieve sustainable tourism development,
local community should be allowed to participate in setting tourism goals and objectives
and help deriving the sustainable indicators to
measure the movement of the tourism product
toward a position of greater or lesser sustainability (Choi and Sirakaya, 2006). Cameron
et al. (2001) even suggested that communities
should be able to participate throughout
the entire tourism planning process, including
decision-making, problem solving, project
implementation and evaluation.
Int. J. Tourism Res. 15, 5265 (2013)
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Sustainability of Tourism Development in Macao

Visitor satisfaction
Sustainable tourism requires satisfying and
retaining visitors by providing high-quality
and memorable experiences (Jayawardena et al.,
2008). Good conservation and management of
tourism resource would enhance experiences of
visitors who interact with tourism resources
and would lead to the maximization of the
economic, social and environmental returns to
stakeholders in the host community (Hall,
2000). Visitor satisfaction also comes from feeling
welcomed in a destination. This could occur only
if residents have a high sense of citizenship and
they see the benets they could obtain from

55
tourism development. Afterward, they will
show hospitality toward visitors (Goeldner and
Ritchie, 2008).
In summary, sustainable development
should incorporate the interests from various
key stakeholders for any tourism destination.
Three key interrelated dimensions are identied for assessing the sustainability of tourism
development. They include assessing the
impacts of tourism on host community, the
overall visitor satisfaction, and the degree of
public involvement in developing tourism. In
addition, based on the indicators developed
previously, Table 1 shows the empirical indicators of the three dimensions used in this study.

Table 1. Sustainable tourism development indictors and Macaos status

Category
Impacts assessment
Economic impacts

Indicator

Main Finding

Economic benet
Employment
Household income
Human resources
Economic diversication

Increase in government revenue

Increase in the overall employment opportunities
Increase in household income
Shortage of labor, both in quantity and quality
Lack of economic diversication due to too much
focus on gaming
Social impacts
Infrastructure development Surplus funds were available to improve the public
transport system (i.e. Light Rail Transit (LRT) and
Hong KongZhuhaiMacao Bridge (HZMB)
Social welfare
Government surpluses were shared to local residents
since 2008
School dropout
Jumped in the high school drop-out rate
Problem gambling
Increase in the numbers of problem gamblers
Crime
Increase in the numbers of crimes and crimes
related to gambling
Environmental impacts
Environmental protection Increase in the public expenditure on environmental
protection
Use of public land
Scarify of some public residential and community
land for casino and entertainment purposes
Reduction of the per capita green/leisure area
Trafc
Growth in the numbers of vehicles and trafc jams
Electricity consumption
Increase in the overall electricity consumption, with
the highest level of consumption from the
entertainment sector
Visitor satisfaction
Tourist satisfaction
An average satisfaction score was recorded between
2004 to 2008
Community participation Tourism planning
An absent of master plan
institutional framework
An absent of development guidelines
The lack of a formal channel for public involvement
in tourism decision-making
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Y. K. P. Wan and X. Li

56
RESEARCH CONTEXT: TOURISM
DEVELOPMENT IN MACAO, CHINA
Macao is a special administrative region (SAR)
in the south-eastern coast of China to the west
of Hong Kong SAR. It has a total population
of about 544,200 (The Statistics and Census
Service (DSEC, 2009a) with a total land area
of 29.2 km2 including the peninsula of Macao,
Taipa, Coloane and the Cotai Strip. It is a
famous gaming city and ranked as 21st among
the worlds top destinations (World Tourism
Organization, 2006) and is the only place in
China where gambling is legal. Macao is also
famous for its rich array of cultural heritage.
In July 2005, the Historic Centre of Macao
was inscribed on the list of UNESCO World
Heritage Sites, making it the 31st of such site
in China (Cultural Affairs Bureau, 2006).
Macao has experienced boom in its tourism
and gaming industry since 2002 as a direct result of the liberalization of casino licensing in
2002 and the implementation of the Chinese
central governments new visa regulations in
2003, which permitted mainland Chinese to
travel to Hong Kong and Macao under the Individual Visitation Scheme (IVS). The number
of tourists grew from 9.16 million in 2000 to
over 21.7 million in 2009 (DSEC, 2009b). The
gaming industry expanded rapidly. Casino
operators increased from only one in 2002 to
three in 2009 (managed by six companies).
The number of casinos jumped from 11 to 33
over the same period (Gaming Inspection and
Coordination Bureau 2009). Due to the increasingly diversifying tourism product, the average
length of stay of tourists also increased, from
1.23 nights in 2002 to 1.44 nights in 2009
(DSEC, 2010a), which resulted in the doubled
increase of hotel room number from 8,869 in
2002 to 19,601 in 2010 (DSEC, 2010a).
Tourism boom has imposed many challenges
to the sustainable development of Macao.
When new casinohotel developments are
placed in the overall context of development
needs, other important development interests
may have to be sacriced. For instance, serious
environmental degradation (Yu, 2008) and congestion at Macaos heritage sites (du Cros,
2009) have been reported. A comprehensive assessment of the sustainability of Macaos tourism development is necessary to understand
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

the sustainability issues occurring in the city

and provide input into improving it.
METHODOLOGY
Data were collected from both primary and
secondary sources of data, including government statistics, materials published in journals,
books and working papers, government and
academics reports, newspapers and magazines.
Data between the years of 20022009 were used
as the liberalizing of casino license began in
2002. In some categories, the 2009 data were
not completely available. Government reports
and policies related to urban and tourism development were studied to examine the extent
of community involvement in local tourism development. In assessing visitor satisfaction,
government visitor survey data together with
some consultancy reports were carefully read
and studied.
Qualitative content analysis was the most
appropriate method in this study, and it has
been used in the existing sustainable tourism
literature (Lu and Nepal, 2009). Content analysis enables the researcher to include large
amounts of textual information and systematically identify its properties by detecting the
more important structures of its communication content (Mak et al., 2010:209). It also helps
understand the change in the trend of the content over time (Finn et al., 2000). The results
were then synthesized and compiled. Table 1
summarizes the measurement indicators used
in this study and the main ndings.
FINDINGS
Economic impacts
The tourism boom, especially the casino gaming industry, has brought tremendous economic benets to Macao. Casino gaming
revenue increased from US$2.76 billion in
2002 to US$15.05 billion in 2009, and its contribution to overall government revenue
expanded from 70.7% to 77.9% during the
same period. The unemployment rate dropped
from 6.0% in 2002 to 3.1% in 2009(DSEC,
2009c). The average monthly household income of Macao residents increased from US
Int. J. Tourism Res. 15, 5265 (2013)
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Sustainability of Tourism Development in Macao

Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

1,360
1,485
1,747
1,862
1,957
1,907
1736
1815
1,849
1862
2,250
2,875
464
524
584
687
700
750
534
558
610
687
762
850
1,019
1,086
1,103
1,225
1,375
1,500
568
611
697
750
875
875
620
740
940
1,062
1,250
1,125

Source: DSEC (2009d)

Construction
Manufacturing

372
387
392
500
500
625
744
806
865
975
1,062
1,250

Gambling
Public administration
and social security
Real estate
and business
activities
Hotels and
restaurants
Wholesale Financial
and retail services

2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Q4
09

Casino gaming development in the past few

years also accelerated the construction of the

Transport and
communication

Social impacts

Table 2. Median monthly income by industry (US$)

$1970 in 2002 to US$3156 in 2007 (DSEC,

2010b).
Negative economic consequence to Macao
society, however, included the serious shortage
of human resources. Although Macaos casino
industry has trebled in size since 2002 and the
number of tourist arrivals has doubled, the
citys population has increased by only about
23%. Macaos working population numbers
about 312,800 (57.7% of the total population;
DSEC, 2009d); yet, there is a serious lack of
qualied, experienced and skilled talent. Most
unemployed residents of Macao are relatively
uneducated and are concentrated in the 4554
and 1424 age brackets (Macao Labour Affairs
Bureau, 2009). These groups are less attractive
to local employers either because they are too
young to work independently or because these
employers prefer to hire young, although sufciently mature, individuals rather than the
middle aged (Trigo de Sousa, 2009).
In view of the tightening labor market,
casino concessionaires are willing to pay a
higher salary to attract qualied staff. The average monthly income of casino workers jumped
from US$1360 in 2004 to US$1907 in 2009,
resulting in the jump in those employed in the
hotel, entertainment and gaming sectors from
25.3% in 2004 to more than 35% in 2008
(Table 2). Other non-gaming and non-hotel sectors therefore are suffering. Another alternative
for casinos is to import non-local employees.
Macao has recorded an increase in the number
of non-resident workers from 23,460 in 2002 to
74,905 in September 2009 (DSEC, 2009e).
Nevertheless, the inux of non-local workers
has caused the dissatisfaction of many local
workers, believing that these workers are taking away most of their jobs.
Another economic cost of tourism is overreliance on the gaming sector, which has resulted
in the lack of economic diversication. The
Macao government realizes that this may seriously affect its ability to achieve long-term sustainable growth, and there is a need to move
toward a more balanced approach (Macao
SAR Government, 2008).

57

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Y. K. P. Wan and X. Li

58
Light Rail Transit system (LRT), which brings a
large number of tourists from the border gates
and ferry ports to large casino resorts in the
CoTai area. The construction of the Hong
KongZhuhaiMacao Bridge (HZMB) was also
underway and was expected to be completed
in 2015, which helps shorten the travelling time
and distance between Hong Kong, Macao and
Zhuhai (Hsu and Zheng, 2010). Other social
benets included the government shared its
surplus by giving residents cash amounting to
US$625 and US$750 each in 2008 and 2009,
respectively.
On the other hand, the rising number of
school drop-outs causes concern to the community. Good employment prospects in the gaming industry, and in particular, the low
educational level required for relatively wellpaid jobs in casinos, such as dealers, has
attracted some young people to quit school
earlier. The school drop-out rate increased from
1,886 in 20022003 to 2,388 in 20082007 and is
found particularly high among junior high
school students (Secondary 1 to 4). Only about
66% of students of secondary school age group
manage to complete their secondary education
(Education and Youth Affairs Bureau of the
Macao SAR Government, 2009).
The prevalence of problem gambling is another problem. The percentage of problem
gamblers increased from 4.3% (or 13,666
people) in 2003 to 6% (or 24,162 people) in
2007. The problem in the two neighboring cities
of Hong Kong and Singapore is less acute. In

Table 3. Crime rate and crimes related to gambling

Year

Crime
%
Case Increase

2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008

8925
8905
9088
9920
9786
10538
10855
12921
13864

0.2
2.1
9.2

1.4
7.7
3.0
19.0
7.3

Crime Related to
Gambling

%
Increase

1093
979
1279
1506

10.43
30.64
17.75

Source: DSEC (2009f); Judiciary Police of the Macao SAR

(2010)
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Hong Kong, the average rate of problem gambling decreased from 5.9% in 2001 to 4.5% in
2008, whereas in Singapore, it shrank from
4.4% to 2.9% between 2004 and 2008 (Institute
for the Study of Commercial Gaming, 2009).
Since 2002, crime in Macao has increased
drastically, from 9,088 incidences in 2002 to
13,864 in 2008 (Table 3). It has also grown rapidly since 2005 when the Individual Visitation
Scheme was implemented to enable more visitors from China, and all the major casinos were
completed in 2007. In particular, it is noted that
gambling-related crimes have grown by 37.8%
from 1,093 in 2005 to 1,506 in 2008 (Judiciary
Police of the Macao SAR Government, 2010).
The tourism and gaming boom has also put
great pressure on the supply of available land.
In the past, great swathes of prime public land
have been eaten up by real estate and gaming
interests. A critical example was the carefully
drafted and detailed laws (running to 175
pages) issued in 1991 for the NAPE area. The
initial plan of this area was to comprehensively
developing it for residential use and community facilities (Lima, 2009). The plan was
repealed by the Chief Executive on 16 August
2007 because many concessions had already
been made to build new casinos, and the government believed that it was necessary to take
their needs (Macao Government, 2006). The
building restriction of the NAPE plan was also
removed after the opening of Sands in 2004
and Galaxy Entertainment Groups Starworld
Casino in 2006. From then on, many other casinos followed, popping up as high-rises that
create a wall effect that brings negative visual
impact and poor urban ventilation (Macau Post
Daily, 2009). The priority given to the land
requirements of the casinos over other public
needs has resulted in the area of green/leisure
zones in the entire Macao being reduced from
13.5 m2 per capita in 2002 to 12.0 m2 in 2008
(Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau,
2008).
The governments determination and effort
in protecting the citys cultural heritage assets
has also been questioned by many community
members. Construction of ofce, residential
and hotel complex with several towers of more
than 99.91 meters in height at the foot of historic Guia Hill was widely criticized by the
local community that would completely block
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Sustainability of Tourism Development in Macao

59

views of the rst modern lighthouse in

China (Wan et al., 2007). The government has
explained that the changes stem from the need
to modernize the legislation and to meet with
the gambling sector development and the increasing need for building sites (Tso, 2006).
Local residents also expressed their concerns
about the rapid tourism development in a survey conducted by a government-owned tourism
college (Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT)) in
2007. A total of 5,158 residents were surveyed.
Local residents were generally dissatised with
the environment and local transportation, and
their perception of crowdedness became more
intense with increasing numbers of visitors.
The report also collected data and information
from government departments and stakeholders
in several tourism-related sectors, and the results
revealed that restaurants and dining, and border
clearance, remained above the optimal carrying
capacity range, which warrants more attention
(IFT, 2008).

satisfactory issue among locals. It is noted that

the number of licensed motor vehicles increased
from 122,345 in 2002 to 182,765 in 2008, with the
highest growth rate recorded between 2004
and 2007 (DSEC, 2009g), when large casino
resorts, such as the Sands (opened in 2004),
Wynn (opened in 2006) and Venetian (opened
in 2006) opened. Vehicle trafc also increased
tremendously, realizing growth rates of 17.2%
in 2004 and 15.37% in 2007 DSEC (2009h).
Finally, as more hotels and casinos operate in
Macao, their electricity consumption has been
increasing. The overall electricity consumption
doubled from 1572.8 million kWh in 2000 to
3311.7 million kWh in 2008 (DSEC, 2000
2008). Among all sectors, Commerce, Restaurants and Hotels consumed the highest
amount of electricity (21.5%) in 2007 (Macau
Ofce for the Development of the Energy
Sector, 2007).
Visitor satisfaction
An average score (63.9%) of visitors satisfaction level was reported between 2004 and
2008 (Table 4). Among all the items, satisfaction
level on the citys public transportation was
ranked the lowest, with an average of 54% of
the respondents indicating satisfaction with
this item. The second and third least satisfactory items were restaurants (62.4%) and shopping facilities (63.6%). Visitors were most
satised with the citys gaming facilities
(68.7%), followed by accommodation (68.2%)
and travel agency (67.8%). These three items
recorded an increasing satisfaction score between 2004 and 2008 (Table 4).
A similar study was carried out by IFT in
2007. About 5,120 visitors were interviewed
and the survey showed that, similar to the local

Environmental impacts
Despite that the public expenditure on environmental protection increased more than double
between 2004 and 2006, from US$75,178,601
to US$160,039,975 (Environmental Council of
the Macao Government (DSPA), 2006), environmental degradation has also been reported
as one of the major concerns of the local residents. Vong (2008) found that residents attitudes toward gaming have changed to
becoming more conservative in 2007, and one
of the main reasons is the deteriorating environmental conditions. A report released by the
Inter-University Institute of Macau (IIUM)
(2007) on quality of life in Macao also concluded that transportation was the least

Table 4. Satisfaction level of visitors visiting Macao (20042008) (%)

2004
2005
2006
2007
2008

Travel
Agency

Accommodation

Restaurant

Shopping
Facilities

Public
Transportation

Gaming
establishment

Average

61
65
72
68
73

65
65
67
68
76

65
62
61
60
64

67
63
60
61
67

65
57
50
46
52

59
65
73
78

64.6
61.8
62.5
62.7
68.3

Source: DSEC (2009h)

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Y. K. P. Wan and X. Li

60
residents, visitors became less than satised
with the crowded surroundings. They also
expressed concern about the border clearance,
environment quality and quality of service
and facilities (IFT, 2008).
Community participation in tourism
development
According to the Basic Law, reclamation projects
represent a territorial expansion and require the
approval of the central Chinese government
(Macao SAR Government, 1999). At the local
planning level (including tourism), jurisdiction
over district planning is vested solely in the Secretary of Transport and Public Works (STPW)

and senior ofcials of planning and land-related

government bureaus, such as the Urban Planning Department of the Public Works Department (Figures 1 and 2). Sometimes, the local
citizens will be consulted through some neighborhood workshops, but, it is not yet an ofcial
requirement. Macao also suffers from the lack of
a town planning ordinance stipulating matters,
such as planning procedures or how the general
public can become involved in the process.
Many times, the general public only knows of
the result when construction is started. There is
also an absence of an ofcial master plan (Wan
et al., 2007). Such overcentralization of power
in the hands of a few has resulted in corruption
and clientelism. Ao Man Long, the former
Macau Government Tourist Office

PRC
Govern
ment

Transport Bureau

Chief Executive of Macau

Environmental Protection Committee

Secretary of Transport & Public Works
(STPW)
Cultural Affairs Bureau
Office of the Secretary of Transport
& Public Works

Research Centre for Sustainable

Development Strategies
Institute For Tourism Studies

Land, Public Works &

Transport Bureau
(DSSOPT)

Urban
Planning
Department

Traffic
Department
(DSAT)

Urbanization
Department

Infrastructure
Development
Bureau (GDI)

Land
Management
Department

Public
Construction
Department

Infrastructure
Department

Notes: --------- represents the departments that serve only in an advisory capacity
represents the departments which have a direct involvement in the planning process
Source: Based on the Report on Macaus Urban Planning System (Land, Public Works & Transport
Bureau, 2008)
Figure 1. Major government authorities and departments involved in tourism planning. Notes: --------- represents the departments that serve only in an advisory capacity ! represents the departments that have a direct
involvement in the planning process. Source: Based on the Report on Macaus Urban Planning System (Land, Public
Works & Transport Bureau, 2008)
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Int. J. Tourism Res. 15, 5265 (2013)

DOI: 10.1002/jtr

Sustainability of Tourism Development in Macao

61

Urban Planning Department of the

Public Works Dept (DSSOPT)
Consultation with the
Cartography and Cadastre
Bureau for surveys and
mapping information

Consult with relevant

government departments

Consultation with
functional departments

Surveys and
mapping
information

Preliminary plan, often drafted in detail and then submitted to the

relevant government departments (only compulsory if the plan is
related to their main purpose: education, tourism. heritage)

Urban Planning Department

Consultation with various government

departments on the preliminary draft
Revision of the draft plan

Disagree

Secretary of DSSOPT considers and

approves the draft plan
Agree

Disagree

Secretary of Transport & Public Works

approves and new order issued
Plan implemented by the Secretary of
DSSOPT
Plan further carried out by the Urban
Planning Department
Plan implementation

Source: Adapted from the Report on Macaus Urban Planning System (Land, Public Works & Transport
Bureau, 2008)
Figure 2. The tourism and urban planning process. Source: Adapted from the Report on Macaus Urban
Planning System (Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau, 2008)

Secretary for Transport and Public Works, was

arrested in December 2006 for his alleged involvement in a massive public works corruption
scandal (Macau Daily Times, 2008).
DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSION
This research has examined the sustainability
of tourism development in Macao from 2002
to 2009. In summary, the rapid growth in tourism and casino gaming industry of Macao has
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

brought both positive and negative impacts to

the community (see Table 1). The positive
impacts are mainly manifested in the economic
prosperity, including growth in employment,
and increased revenue and income for government and household. Due to lack of the master
planning, tourism development in Macao has
not been sustainable enough, as reected by
the tensions and conicts between local residents, tourists and tourism businesses, and
Macao government. Without addressing these
Int. J. Tourism Res. 15, 5265 (2013)
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62
problems properly, Macao cannot maximize
the benets tourism development could provide. Therefore, in the long run, tourism development would be blamed for everything
negative that could occur in Macao. The ndings could provide several implications and
suggestions for Macaos tourism development,
taking a stakeholder approach.
There are four major conicts between local
communities, visitors, government and businesses, such as casinos and hotels. First, the
ndings suggested that the rapid tourism
growth has created tension between the residents and tourists in terms of recourses allocation and usage and environmental quality.
Macao residents expressed their concerns over
the crowdedness in the restaurants and public
transports and blamed this on the increasing
number of tourists. On the other hand, tourists
were not satised with the restaurants either
and complained about the trafc jams as well.
In addition, both parties agreed that environmental quality has been impaired due to the increasing number of hotel and casino coaches
catering to tourists.
Second, although the number of employment opportunities did increase, local residents
could only be employed in low-pay and lowrank positions due to their lack of education
and experience (DSEC, 2009d). Some positions
in casinos and hotels that do not require much
education and pay well, such as dealer position, did not exist. However, this has caused
an increase of high school dropouts, as some
of the residents are rather myopic. Lack of
qualied local workforce for high-rank and
high-pay positions led the hotels and casinos
to import non-resident employees, which
resulted in local residents discontent that they
were left out in sharing the benets of tourism
development in their community. This would
create a vicious circle among the hotels and
casinos, the local workforce, and expatriates,
which eventually would hurt Macaos
economy.
Third, casino and hotel expansions have created disputes in public land usage and energy
consumption between local community and
casinos and hotels. While the population density in Macao is the largest in the world and per
capita housing is low, Macao government still
issue permissions to build more casinos and
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Y. K. P. Wan and X. Li
hotels. With more casinos and hotels rising
up, their energy consumption doubled from
2000 to 2008, making them the biggest energy
consumer. Last, the results suggested that
Macao residents do want to get involved and
consulted in the planning and development
process. However, there is no such system, as
they complained that a proper channel to communicate with the government does not exist.
These conicts are rather typical if tourism
development is growing fast without a plan.
However, it is against the principles of sustainable tourism that aims to improve the residents quality of life by optimizing local
economic benets by protecting the natural
and built environment and provide a highquality experience for visitors (Bramwell and
Lane, 1993; Choi and Sirakaya, 2006). Unfortunately, at the present stage, tourism development in Macao has only achieved a short-term
economic success at the cost of other parties
interests, especially that by local residents.
This could be attributed to Macao governments eagerness to speed up its economic
growth and get rich. This practice could be
found in other developing countries (Sezer
and Harrison, 1994; Tosun, 2001; Tosun and
Jenkins, 1996). For example, Tosun (2001), p.
291) pointed out that tourism development in
Turkey in early 1990s was used as an easy, effective and relatively cheap instrument to
achieve export-led industrialization without
considering the principles of development and
sustainable development. Under the pressure
of getting rich fast, government has the tendency to adopt a relaxed policy in appropriating public land for tourism development, such
as building more casinos and hotels in Macaos
case, and relaxed restrictions on employing foreigners (Tosun, 2001; Tosun and Jenkins, 1996).
The preferential treatment of tourism sector
combined with present prosperity in tourism
development has made Macao over-reliant on
tourism, which is very unhealthy in the long
run.
It seems that with the huge money that the
Macao government has gained from tourism
development, it is the about time to consider
adopting a more sustainable way in future development. The city needs to diversify away
from its casino industry in order to fairly distribute economic benets to the host
Int. J. Tourism Res. 15, 5265 (2013)
DOI: 10.1002/jtr

Sustainability of Tourism Development in Macao

community and the tourism industry (Choi
and Sirakaya, 2006), to speed up the construction of the to improve local transportation and
to keep monitoring the environmental conditions, the quality of life of local residents, students drop-out and crime rate for delighting
both the locals and visitors.
It is also believed that all the issues discussed
have boiled down to one major concern, that is,
Macao needs to develop a master plan for its
tourism development, integrating all the key
stakeholders interests, particularly the local
residents. It is well understood that without
residents support, tourism development cannot grow in a healthy manner (Andereck
et al., 2005; Nunkoo and Ramkissoon, 2011).
Getting the community involved has the benet of creating a sense of ownership over decision making and making the residents feel
more positive toward tourism development
(Murphy, 1983). On the other hand, if the residents are not consulted in the planning process,
they would feel indifferent or antagonistic toward tourism development. Their negative
attitudes and emotions would be felt by the
tourists (Goeldner and Ritchie, 2008). As a matter of fact, this research indicated that visitor
satisfaction level has already been decreasing.
However, the current system in Macao does
not facilitate public involvement in tourism
planning and development. The executive-led
top-down planning model, together with the
absence of a master plan, detailed planning
guidelines and a town planning ordinance,
offer huge opportunities for the few senior government ofcials that maintain an exclusive
hold on power to determine the use of the citys
resources, and they are biased toward the real
estate and gaming sector. Therefore, it is suggested that Macao government should make
an attempt to decentralize its decision-making
and build community consensus in achieving
common tourism goals by allowing sufcient
room for public involvement in tourism decision-making (Choi, 2003). Drafting a statutory
town planning ordinance that stipulates the
planning process to be followed and when
and how the public is to be permitted a say in
the planning process may be the rst step.
This paper contributes to understanding the
sustainability of tourism in Macao from 2002
to 2009 by employing empirical sustainability
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

63
indicators, as in previous research in sustainable tourism development that mainly focus
on conceptual theory development (Choi and
Sirakaya, 2006; Smith, 1995). An examination
of quantiable indicators provides a more objective view on sustainability issues. This paper
lls some gaps of research in this area and shed
lights on what conicts could occur among the
key stakeholders, including local residents,
tourists, casinos and hotels, and government,
due to the rapid tourism growth. The case of
Macao can be a good reference for other rapidly growing tourism and gaming destinations.
As with other studies, this study is not without
its limitations, such as the difculties in accessing some of the tourism planning guidelines
and policies of the government and the lack of
previous studies in this area. Nonetheless, this
paper sheds some light on the issue and provides baseline evidence for further debate and
research in this area.

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