Sabrina Ho looks to Macau art fairs and auctions to diversify economy far from casinos
As pressure grows on Macau to find new sources of revenue, scion of casino dynasty imagines some other future to the other SAR
Sabrina Ho Chiu-yeng does what she will to help you Macau diversify. The 26-year-old daughter of Stanley Ho Hung-sun could be also known for gracing society and entertainment pages, but also in January she organised the initial Macau sales by China’s state-owned Poly Auction and also in November held her own annual hotel art fair, having already launched an exhibition in promoting the work of young art graduates in September.
“Macau has been evolving,” she tells The Collector. “We don’t wish to rely just for the gaming industry. We want more families to come here for holidays, you want to boost our cultural and creative industries.”
This is a politically correct view to the daughter of the casino magnate. Macau is within the cross hairs of Beijing’s war on corruption and capital outflow. The central government started urging town to stop its being hooked on the gaming sector, the taxes where spend on most public expenditures, back through the boom years, when the “build it and they can come” mentality ruled the casino industry. Today, mainland policies to discourage high rollers coupled with a slowing economy have raised the stress to find new revenues.
Fundamental change may be slow to come. Five casinos have opened since 2012 plus much more take presctiption the way in which, including two from branches of the Ho empire – the Grand Lisboa Palace, led by Ho’s mother, Angela Leong On-kei (Stanley’s so-called “fourth wife”), and MGM Cotai, headed by Sabrina ho‘s half-sister Pansy Ho Chiu-king.
So might be Sabrina’s cultural endeavours all just a bit of soft publicity to the clan?
Well, China’s biggest auction house is treating her seriously, and hopes her youthful energy and family connections might help it enter a new and wealthy market where no international house carries a presence. In exchange, Ho says, sherrrd like the auctions to help you attract tourists and perhaps encourage the city’s 600,000 residents to develop much more of a desire for culture. Their bond, called Poly Auction Macau, is 51 % belonging to Poly and also the rest by Ho’s company, Chiu Yeng Culture.
Ho was raised surrounded by art and other collectables belonging to her parents but she is a novice on the auctions business. After graduating with an arts degree in the University of Hong Kong, in 2013, she worked on the branding and marketing side of the family’s hotel and property businesses. “But I favor art i asked Poly only could work part time in their Hong Kong office, to learn about the auction world,” she says.
More information about Sabrina ho browse our new web portal: look at more info