Sands China & GMTCM Sign Big Health Tourism MoU

Las Vegas Sands’ Macau-facing subsidiary, Sands China, has teamed up with Guangdong-Macau Traditional Chinese Medicine Technology Industrial Park Development (GMTCM) to integrate Big Health tourism across Macau and Hengqin.

To that end, the two parties have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate and leverage Macau’s position as a tourism center to promote health tourism.

Sands China Becomes the First Concessionaire to Join Forces with GMTCM

The MoU was signed at the Traditional Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Industrial Park of Cooperation Between Guangdong and Macau in Hengqin. Under its terms, the two provinces will nurture collaboration, using Macau’s position as a meeting point of Eastern and Western culture and health practices.

The tie-up will also seek to attract both international and domestic investment to Macau. To that end, Sands China and GMTCM will support local health firms and create opportunities for integrating Big Health and tourism in Macau and Hengqin. The MoU will also provide opportunities for collaboration between Big Health products and related MICE events.

Sands China and GMTCM’s partnership could also introduce new Big Health tourism facilities and products at Sands China’s integrated resorts and allow the two to organize new MICE events. GMTCM, on the other hand, would provide premium health management and medical care services for tourists and residents across the two provinces.

The deal aligns with Macau’s vision to diversify its economy and end its reliance on its casinos. The special administrative region, for context, is currently looking to double down on investments in non-gambling tourism, as well as in a variety of cultural and technological initiatives. To that end, it has urged its casino concessionaires to diversify their businesses. These efforts, however, have so far yielded only mixed results, despite concessionaires’ ongoing commitments to diversification.

Advancing the Cross-Sector Integration of the Provinces’ Tourism Initiatives

Representatives weighed in on the MoU and the importance of promoting Big Health tourism. Grant Chum, Sands China’s chief executive officer and executive director, said that his company is honored to be the first integrated resort in Macau to sign an MoU with GMTCM.

We have actively participated in this high-level collaboration, aiming to apply our strengths and value to enhance the city’s pivotal role as a world center of tourism and leisure and a gateway for cultural exchange between East and West – deepening Macao’s integration into national development.

Grant Chum, CEO & executive director, Sands China

Chum vowed to collaborate with GMTC to establish an “industrial chain for the health tourism industry” and promote Macau and Hengqin as premier destinations for health tourism.

Wu Song, chair of GMTCM, also commented on the collaboration, saying that it carries “profound significance” for advancing the cross-sector integration of Macau and Hengqin’s tourism initiatives. He added: “The partnership will inject new momentum into Macao’s moderate economic diversification and the construction of the Greater Bay Area’s Traditional Chinese Medicine hub, together writing a new chapter in the great practice of One Country, Two Systems.”