The 2009/10 racing season came to a successful end last Wednesday. Overall, it has been a good season for us, and the addition of extra racedays and simulcasts took the total amount of racing gross margin retained by the Club for its operating expenses and charity contributions, to nearly HK$3.4 billion for the full season, showing a 10.1 per cent increase. But it was even more successful for the Government, as total betting duty on racing rose 10.9 per cent to over HK$9 billion. You may be surprised to hear that our racing gross margin still only stands at 2004 levels, mainly due to Hong Kong's exceptionally high betting duty rates. During that time our operating costs have risen significantly with inflation, so we still face a lot of challenges.
This season actually had two finales instead of one, as we arranged special end-of-season programmes for both the final Sha Tin day meeting on the Sunday, then the final Happy Valley racenight on the Wednesday. Both proved very popular, with more than 79,000 racegoers flocking to the two meetings in total.
There was a noticeably different atmosphere at the two meetings, which each had its own special appeal to different customer segments. The Sha Tin finale attracted the dedicated racing crowd, who gave enthusiastic support to all 11 races and clearly enjoyed the opportunity to bid farewell to the jockeys afterwards. The meeting at Happy Valley, on the other hand, had more of a party mood and attracted more casual customers to the racecourse, to enjoy a few pints of beer and some great times with their friends. But both meetings produced very satisfactory results and I'd like to thank you all again for your support over the past week and the past season.
Even by Hong Kong standards, the weather seems to have been hotter than usual lately, and I know that some of you have expressed the view that we should arrange some twilight meetings in the summer months. This is not quite as simple an issue as it might sound, as it affects many different parties both inside and outside the Club, but I can tell you that we are actively looking into it and will try our hardest to balance everyone's best interests and needs.
As a customer-facing organisation, we have always put great importance on the needs of different customer groups and tried to be responsive to changing customer demands. The regular upgrades of our betting services and facilities are a good example of this. In the coming months, though, we plan to take this a stage further by become a truly "customer-centric" organisation, in other words putting our customers at the heart of everything we do, and trying to understand the needs and expectations of different customer segments better than ever before.
We have taken an important step towards that direction yesterday, as we’ve announced the appointment of the new position of the Executive Director of Marketing and the setting up of the marketing division. By doing so, we hope we can consolidate existing customer care and services, and formulate customer programmes via in-depth understanding of customer behaviour, so as to better cater the needs of our different clients.
I believe we have to maintain the popularity of horse racing and attract newcomers to the sport in the face of rapidly-growing competition in the local and regional leisure market. A healthy and sustainable business is a must if the Club is to continue its long standing mission of contributing to the community through its not-for-profit model, which is much admired in other parts of the world.
Anyway, over the summer break, I'll continue to keep updating you from time to time on this and other developments of interest. In the meantime, may I wish you all a relaxing and enjoyable summer with your families and friends.
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