ABSTRACT
Macao is the first and last European colony in Asia (Cheng 1999). Throughout its 442 years of Portuguese rule, Macao had undergone dramatic changes from a quaint, quiet fishing village to a thriving centre of sea trade and, in the 1990s, from a declining economy in the shadows of Hong Kong’s prosperity to the gaming capital of the world today, with receipts long surpassing that of Las Vegas (Vong 2008). Macao is just under 31 km2, with a population increased from 513,400 in 2006 to 644,900 in 2016 (DSEC 2017), thanks to immigrant investor programmes and human resources demand brought forth by the prosperous economy, making Macao the most densely populated in the world. The transformation of Macao following the handover from Portuguese rule to Chinese administration on 20 December 1999 has been unprecedented, all of which is attributed to the deregulation of the gaming licences in 2002, just three years following the handover, in the hope of restoring the economy. The economic issues were caused by the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, a negative destination image, the effects of death cases brought by the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in neighbouring cities and a declining economy caused by many factories in the manufacturing industry moving to mainland China, among many other reasons. This transformation has affected Macao in three main aspects: the economy, the political environment and the societal life in general.
