Venetian Macao Resort ready to open this week

28.08.2007, Lesen Sie hier den Bericht über «Venetian Macao Resort ready to open this week».

It will be the world´s biggest casino, the company says (Macau).- Tomorrow’s opening of the world’s largest casino at the Venetian Macao-Resort- Hotel in Cotai is the launch of casinos in the area hoped to be seen as Macau’s Strip, which can turn Macau from a gambling paradise into a family entertainment centre to rival Las Vegas.

The Venetian Macau, operated by the Las Vegas giant Sands, will be the world’s biggest casino, the company says. Only one building in the world - a Nasa facility in Florida - is bigger by floor area, it adds. It has 3,000 rooms, a fleet of gondolas along its shop- lined canals, and includes what seems to be a full-scale version of Venice’s landmark Bridge of Sighs.

Unveiled as the second largest building in the world and the largest in Asia, the Venetian Macao, with an area of 976,000 meters, has 3,000 suites, around -seat auditorium, a multifunctional room for 15,000 people and 93,000 sqm of retail space, with 350 world renowned stores.

The Venetian Macao, which cost us$ 2.4 billion, will also include ten world’s largest casino, which will have 871 gaming tables and 3,400 slots and, once finished, the Las Vegas Sands complex will have a total fo 2,900 gaming tables and 16,000 slots. In order to attract customers to the casino-hotel, the firm has invested in a land, sea and air transport system.

In order to travel there, there are 15 vessels available with a capacity fo 400 passengers each for routes from and to Hong Kong and the south of mainland China as well as six aircraft that have been acquired to transport high stakes gamblers and a fleet of 100 buses in Macau to provide transport from and to land border areas.

Around 160 of the 350 stores at the Venetian will open, shifting the emphasis in the southern Chinese territory from roulette to top-end retail. The Venetian strategy is simple: get the Asian visitor, who already spends a huge amount on gambling, to come for longer, bring their family and scoop up every luxury brand they can get their hands on.

The opening of the Venetian Macao is also aimed at changing the usual tourist demand in Macau, with William Weidner, chairman of the Las Vegas Sands, having recently said that the casino would contribute to transforming Macau from being a day trip destination for tourists into an “elegant destination.” He added that 44 major conventions have already been scheduled at the Venetian for the next two years.

The Venetian Macao, the second property of the Las Vegas Sands in Macau after in 2004 it opened Sands Macau, is part of a complex which, when it is concluded in 2009, will represent an investment of over us$ 12 billion and provide 20,000 hotel rooms in chains such as the Sheraton, Shangri-la, Hilton, Conrad, Traders and Raffles.

Currently the average visitor stays in Macau for just 1.2 days, meaning most leave without seeing anything apart from the gaming floor, but the market will follow the product, its executives believe. "The China customer is the highest spending tourist (per capita) on retail outside of their country in the world. We expect people will just come here to shop," David Sylvester, the Venetian Macau’s vice-president of retail told the South China Morning Post.

The new mix also means putting on audience-attracting sporting and entertainment events - from Manchester United to Cirque de Soleil - and expanding the city’s exhibition facilities. JP Morgan’s Macau analyst Billy Ng believes the gamble will pay off. "If you look at mainland tourists, when they are not gaming they look to go shopping. No matter where they go - Hong Kong or Europe, they are the same as Hong Kong people, who like to shop very much," he said.

Sands are also gambling on the Cotai Strip where the Venetian has been built, a reclaimed strip of land now populated by cranes and foreign workers that aims to have 18,500 hotel rooms by 2009, with many more planned.

In the long term, Cotai will include Macau Dreams, a joint-venture of Australia’s Publishing & Broadcasting (PBL) and Melco International Development Limited (Melco), currently headed by Lawrence Ho, son of gaming magnate Stanley Ho, the Cotai Mega Resort owned by Galaxy Resorts, and Macau Studio City. Wynn Resorts, which already has a hotel- casino on the Macau peninsula, also plans to build casinos on land it owns in the same area.

Sanjay Nadkarni, a professor in tourism at Macau Science and Technology University, whose office is just opposite the Venetian’s huge lake, is not so sure if the strategy will pay off. "If that is the aim of Macau - a sustainable tourism destination based on the family market - I just do not know how workable that is," he said.

Rival casinos are watching with interest. JayDee Clayton, who runs Wynn’s Macau casino, said he welcomed the arrival of the giant, but that he expects his customers to remain loyal. "We are about luxury and niche not about scale and volume," he told AFP. "We expect our customers to have a look at the Venetian, but we also expect them to come back because that is where they feel comfortable."

But perhaps the X-factor in the success of Macau and the Cotai Strip is not the elaborate entertainment and luxury brands in the venues, but the mainland Chinese authorities. Earlier this year, the government tightened access for mainland visitors to the gambling haven. The reasons for the move are not clear, but Nadkarni is sure it is a result of the fallout from heavy gambling.

"This is both to do with the social problems that gambling creates, but also the fact that China’s hard-earned money is just disappearing abroad," he said. "So the risk is not simply the viability of the model the Cotai Strip is proposing, but also the acceptability of the social cost to the Macanese people and the mainland Chinese."

The social legacy for Macau of the boom is still to be played out. Although none of the casinos have failed to find staff yet, the drain on a population of 525,500 to fill all the croupiers and service staff will only increase. Brisbane Times / Macau Hub / IHT

Über Glücksspiele in Macau - Gambling in Macao:

Macau (englisch Macao) liegt rund 50 Kilometer westlich von Hongkong und ist das Glücksspiel-Paradies in Asien.

Macau hat rund 40 Spielcasinos. Die grössten Casinos sind The Venetian Macao, MGM Macao, Wynn Macao, Galaxy StarWorld, City of Dreams, Sands Macao, Casino Lisboa.

Neben den riesigen und farbenfrohen Casinobuildings ist eines der Wahrzeichen der Macau Tower (Fernsehturm mit 338 Meter) mit atemberaubenden Ausblicken auf die Stadt.

Macau erstreckt sich über eine Fläche von 115.3 km2 und hat rund 620'000 Einwohner.

--- Ende Artikel / Pressemitteilung Venetian Macao Resort ready to open this week ---


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