About Destination Macau

Destination Macau

Destination Macau is a luxury lifestyle magazine about Macau, published in English and Simplified Chinese. Originally published by Destination Macau Limited, part of Ignite Media Group, it was relaunched in 2011 and reported a circulation of over 85,000 copies per issue in 2012, distributed through ferries, airlines, newsstands and Macau's top luxury hotels to affluent readers in Macau, Hong Kong and mainland China. In April 2014 the South China Morning Post Group acquired Destination Macau Limited from Ignite Media Group for close to HK$6.8 million and revamped the title under SCMP Specialist Publications, covering luxury brands, world-class entertainment, shopping and fine dining in Macau.

The magazine was built for one specific reader journey: the affluent visitor travelling to Macau — by ferry from Hong Kong, by air, or across the border from mainland China — for gaming, entertainment, shopping and dining. Its publisher described the combined circulation of Destination Macau and its sister title DM Exclusive as 90,000 at the time of the SCMP acquisition, with distribution inside five-star hotels and resorts, on airlines and dedicated Macau ferries, and by direct delivery to high-net-worth individuals in Macau.

Macau's luxury showcase

Destination Macau's premise was Macau itself. In the years after the liberalisation of Macau's gaming industry, the territory became the world's largest gaming market — its gaming revenue surpassed Las Vegas's by seven times in 2013, as the trade press noted at the time of the magazine's sale — and its integrated resorts filled with luxury retail, celebrity-chef restaurants and entertainment. A bilingual luxury magazine presenting that world to the visitors arriving to spend in it had a clear commercial logic.

The magazine delivered leisure and lifestyle content in English and Simplified Chinese: luxury brands to watch out for, Macau entertainment reviews, and fine-dining experiences. Its bilingual format addressed both the international visitor and the mainland Chinese high spender on whom Macau's new economy depended. In SCMP's phrase at the acquisition, the titles combined high-quality content with a native base of affluent readers from Macau, China and the world.

Origins under Ignite Media Group

Destination Macau was originally published by Destination Macau Limited, part of Ignite Media Group, a Macau-focused media company whose other platforms included Macau.com, Qoos.com, MacauHR and Aomen.TV. Ignite built Destination Macau and its ultra-high-end sister, Destination Macau Exclusive — known as DM Exclusive — into, in the words of its general manager Carrie Leung, Macau's premier luxury publishing titles.

The title was relaunched in 2011, positioning it for the maturing phase of Macau's boom, when competition among resorts for high-value visitors was intensifying and luxury brands were expanding aggressively in the territory. A magazine distributed where those visitors slept, travelled and played offered brands a direct channel to them at the point of spending.

Circulation and distribution

Destination Macau reported a circulation of over 85,000 copies per issue in 2012. At the SCMP acquisition, Campaign Asia reported a total circulation of 90,000 for the two Destination Macau titles, and SCMP confirmed that the magazine would maintain its distribution network within five-star hotels and resorts, airlines, dedicated direct-to-Macau ferries, and — most importantly, in the group's own emphasis — its direct distribution to high-net-worth individuals in Macau.

That distribution list is the magazine's business model in miniature. Ferries and airlines capture the visitor in transit, forming intentions; hotels place the magazine in the room during the stay; newsstands serve residents and casual buyers; and direct delivery to wealthy individuals guarantees the readership luxury advertisers most want. Few magazines anywhere can describe their circulation in terms so precisely matched to a single destination's visitor economy.

DM Exclusive and custom publishing

Alongside the main title, Destination Macau Limited published DM Exclusive, an ultra-high-end magazine positioned above even Destination Macau, also in English and Simplified Chinese. The two titles segmented the luxury audience: Destination Macau for the affluent visitor market at scale, DM Exclusive for the very top tier of spenders — the high-roller and private-client world on which Macau's premium economy rests.

The company also operated a growing custom publishing business, producing content for luxury brands, services and retailers aiming to reach Macau's visitors. Custom publishing — magazines and materials made for a client's own distribution — was a natural extension of the company's skills and channels, and it formed part of what SCMP acquired: not only two magazine titles but a small luxury content business with its own client relationships.

The SCMP acquisition

On 24 March 2014 the South China Morning Post Group announced that it would acquire Destination Macau Limited from Ignite Media Group; the purchase was completed in April 2014 for close to HK$6.8 million. The acquisition was intended, the group said, to further consolidate its market share in the South China region's luxury lifestyle media space and to reinforce its dominant position in the luxury lifestyle segment. The company would operate under SCMP Group's management from late March onwards, maintaining its editorial direction and its Macau distribution network.

Strategically, the deal gave SCMP something it lacked: a native presence in Macau. As a Campaign Asia source noted, SCMP then had only custom-publishing titles for casino and resort clients in the territory; Destination Macau gave it owned media there, at a moment when Macau's gaming revenue was still growing at extraordinary rates — 19 percent growth in 2013 and a 40 percent surge in February 2014. Elsie Cheung, SCMP Group's chief operating officer, called the combination of the titles' high-quality content and affluent readership a perfect fit for the group's family of luxury titles and a formidable addition to its offering for top-tier advertisers. Ignite's Carrie Leung responded that, knowing SCMP Group's capabilities, Ignite was confident the new owner would take the business to the next level.

Revamp under SCMP Specialist Publications

In September 2014 SCMP relaunched both titles under its Specialist Publications division. Destination Macau was the first of the two to be relaunched, with DM Exclusive following later that month. The revamped titles kept their lifestyle focus and their bilingual publication in English and Simplified Chinese, and SCMP assigned a team of specialist journalists to curate content on international luxury trends for affluent, modern and discerning readers. Winnie Chung, editorial director of SCMP Specialist Publications, said the revamped titles featured a new typeface and improved photographs and graphics.

The revamp found strong advertising support from fashion and automotive brands including Chanel, Tiffany, Hugo Boss, Armani, Tissot and Mercedes-Benz — a list that demonstrates the titles' place in the luxury market. The first revamped Destination Macau met readers on 12 September 2014; its September/October issue carried an exclusive interview with Joël Robuchon, the French chef of the Lisboa hotels described as having more Michelin stars than anyone on earth, and a feature with Zou Shiming, China's most accomplished boxer, on his favourite things to see and do in Macau. Romanus Ng, general manager of SCMP Advertising and Marketing Solutions, said the titles were well positioned to strengthen marketers' reach to top-tier clientele.

Editorial focus: luxury, dining, entertainment

Under both owners, the magazine's editorial territory remained constant: luxury brands, world-class entertainment, shopping and fine dining in Macau. That focus mirrors the territory's visitor offer — the resort boutiques, the casino shows and concerts, the Michelin-recognised restaurants of the big hotels — and the magazine presented itself as independent of the hospitality and gaming brands it covered, positioning it, in SCMP's words, to connect readers with all of Macau's best in life.

The independence point mattered. Macau's visitor information was — and is — dominated by the resorts' own marketing. A magazine standing outside the casino groups, curated by journalists, offered readers a guide they could treat as editorial rather than brochure, and offered advertisers an environment in which their brands appeared alongside the whole city's offer rather than a single resort's.

Destination Macau and the tourism economy

Destination Macau's history is inseparable from Macau's tourism economy. It was relaunched in 2011 as that economy boomed, reported circulations of 85,000 to 90,000 copies as visitor spending surged, and was bought in 2014 by a Hong Kong media group explicitly seeking entry to the world's fastest-growing gaming market. With more than $8 billion of retail sales in Macau in 2013 and a doubling of hotel rooms planned over the following five years, as Jing Daily reported at the time, the magazine's audience of affluent visitors was among the most valuable readerships in Asian publishing.

As a record of that moment — a bilingual luxury magazine, distributed on ferries and in five-star hotels, acquired for its access to wealthy travellers — Destination Macau documents how completely Macau's publishing, like its economy, came to be organised around the affluent visitor. It remains the reference title of Macau luxury lifestyle publishing in the boom years.