Spoting the “Disney” in Macau!

There are a number of sites which are being disneyfied.

- Venetian Macau-Resort-Hotel

When you visit the site, you would feel that you have teleported to the city, Venice, and not at Macau anymore. The site is being themed up with everything that would bring you to experience as if you were at Venice.

As you know, boat rides with a man or lady dressed in strips and rolling the boat symbolises Venice very much. In this site, they have it too. Shophouses being painted with pastel colours like pastel yellow and blue, having the ceiling of the indoor site painted as a sky enable you to feel the cloudy nice weather you could get at Venice. The architecture of the site is very much alike as to what Venice has too. They also have performance at certain time of the day show casing Venetian dance with their traditional costumes.

Hence, it gives the idea that you have gone to Venice as you enter the site when you are actually not.

- Macau

The whole city of Macau itselft has theme up as the Asia's Las Vegas as there a numerous casinos at every corner of the city. As Las Vegas is also known for its grand casinos, Macau has now successfully turned herself into one too.

- Macau Fisherman's Wharf

It is the very first theme park at Macau and also a shopping center. Is consists of three main sections: Dynasty Wharf, East Meets West and Legend Wharf.

Dynasty Wharf is an imitation of Tang Dynasty architectures of the mainland China. Whereas East Meets West is the fusion of both oriental and western features. It has a 40m tall man-made volcano, waterfalls, architectures of Greece, ancient battleship, a Roman Amphitheatre, an exhibitition facilities, an Arabian children's play area and a characteristic shopping mall. Legend Wharf has all types of recreational facilities. For example, a High-tech Games centre and Water Performance Arena.

Therefore, once you enter every different section of site, you would experience differently; Illusion of travelling from place to place and time to time (Tangs Dynasty of mainland China to Greece and lastly to the 'future world' where all are high-tech equipped).

- 3 Monkeys Cafe

There is this cafe called the 3 monkeys cafe located at St. Mark's Square. The whole cafe is themed up into jungle. This would attract families bringing their child over for dinner. They offer Italian, American, Mexican and Asian Cuisine. The staffs are all dressed into the theme too. Due to the decoration and atmosphere in the cafe, people would feel excited as if they are dining in the jungle.

- Africana Restaurant

This restaurant located at Macau Fisherma's Wharf is a traditional African themed restaurant. Both the exterior and interior of the restaurant give people the feeling that they are at a part of Africa. The restaurant's landscape is a hut and the surroundings are all decorated with tribal ornaments.

The changes that have been brought about by the growth of tourism in the country

As compared to the past, Macau was once a place known just for its legalised gambling and cheap street foods. However, due to the development of tourism, the city has changed gradually. It attracts even more tourists than before and this helps to both improve the city's economy and the standard of living conditions of the residents at Macau.

Economic and Technological Impacts

As years pass, additional attractions are added, better infrastructure being built and better service quality is provided. High-rises are constructed as offices for certain companies, some others used as shopping centres. And in order to accommodate the increasing number of tourists entering Macau, Macau built a new airport.

This is all due to both globalisation and growth of tourism. It is because of globalisation that is why is helps to grow tourism in the city and on the other way round, because of the growth of tourism that is why globalisation occurs. Its vice-visa. One of the reason why tourism benefits from globalisation is that, globalisation provides convenience to people like the tourists. They could visit their favourite cafe that they used to go when they are at home, (Starbucks) and they could also access the internet to contact their family and friends at home since they are away. This helps to encourage tourists to visit the city.

Socio-Cultural Impacts

Although Macau has developed into a globalised city, tourists who visit Macau in search of heritage will not be disappointed. Historic buildings are conserved and still in everyday use and traditional customs are alive and well. Some of the historic buildings include the churches and temples which are still busy and well maintained.

Most of the tourists visiting Macau are from Hong Kong. The Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) has been trying to concentrate on attracting tourists from a few markets rather than trying to attract people from all over the world. This would include Hong Kong and other 3-4 regional markets. Attracting a smaller and specific group or people would increase the chance of more stayover visits too.

Environmental Impacts

The residents of Macau became more aware of their cleanliness of the city. They do not want the tourists to have a bad impression of the place as a dirty city of lazy unhygienic people.

Legal Impacts

Due to the increase of tourists arrival, MGTO has set up stricter regulations to restaurants, bars and nightclubs in order to sustain its tourism industry.

Some regulation includes:
- Customers area must be separated from operation area.
- Toilets must be separated according to genders.
- Premier restaurants which can hold a capacity up to 200 pax should provide handicapped toilets.
- Kitchens must install air-extracting ventilators.

All these not only benefits the tourists but also the residents.

Comment on whether tourism has been a culprit in commodifying cultures and traditions

Personally, I find Macau's culture is being commodified to a certain extent. This is because in the present, you would not be able to find a city without anything being commodified. The best example would be Paris. People now has the mindset that as long as I own an ornaments which symbolises Paris, it means that I have been to Paris and that ornament would also represent part of Paris's culture.

Hence, in Macau, people could purchase goods like the portuguese tarts or the key chain showing the casinos of Macau or Macau Tower. A good example is souvenirs. Suppliers would keep manufacture these souvenirs non-stop in order to earn revenue from these tourists. Towards the local, they do not have that much appreciation towards their culture anymore as time goes (espcially the sellers). They would search their own culture elements to produce it as a product and sell them to the tourists. The main idea for them is for survival and earn revenue. They neglect the importance and value of their own culture.

However, not a lot of things are being accomodified. There are still other goods and services that need to be experience and cannot be bought back home.

In my view, I find that it is because of tourism that is why the idea of commodification came about. In other words, it is because when people travel to another city, they would definitely wish to purchase something back home as a representation of the visit to the city. This act as a proof, a memory so that they would not find forget what they had experienced or seen during the last trip when they got back home.

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