Macau welcomed 21.9 million visitors last year, a 17 per cent increase on 2005 whileHong Kong received 25.5 million, an eight per cent increase.Developers are racing to turn the former Portuguese enclave into not only the world’sgambling capital, but also a meetings and incentives hub that will give the likes of Hong Kong and Singapore a run for their money.Where no land is available, it is taken from the sea. The Grand Waldo was the firsthotel-casino to open on the Cotai strip, a US$25 billion avenue of casinos, hotels andshops on 80 hectares of reclaimed land that connects Taipa and Coloane, the two small islands off the southern Chinese peninsula that is Macau.Elsewhere on the strip, workers are putting the finishing touches on the Venetian Macau, a 39-storey replica of the Doge’s Palace in Venice, with a huge statue of the archangel Gabriel on top and 3,000 suites.The Venetian will consist of 111,000 sqm of convention and meeting facilities, a15,000-seat event centre and an 1,800-seat theatre, which is due to open this summer.The new venue has already signed contracts for 26 separate trade shows.The Association of Surplus Dealers (ASD)/Association of Merchandise Dealers
(AMD) have booked the venue for a series of trade shows beginning in October.
MAJOR SHOWSThe Venetian has signed agreements with several major trade shows, including theAutomobile Sports Asia show, Hong Kong Jewellery Manufacturers Exhibition, and the Macao International Jewellery and Watch Fair.The Cotai Strip will also house a retail centre, Four Seasons, Fairmont Hotel andResort, Raffles Hotel and Resort, Hilton, Sheraton and Shangri-La.And looming over the old Lisboa is the newly opened Grand Lisboa, a 44-storeybuilding shaped like a lotus.Starwood Hotels and Resorts has also signed an agreement with Las Vegas SandsCorporation to develop two hotels on the Cotai Strip: The Sheraton Macau Hotel andThe St. Regis Hotel and Residences, Macau.The 4,000-room Sheraton Macau Hotel is expected to open next year and the 460-room St. Regis Hotel and 400-room St. Regis Residences will open a year later.The strip will raise Macau’s current tally of 12,000 hotel rooms to 54,000 within ten years.
The backers of the scheme, the single biggest tourist investment in the world, are betting it will steal the gaming jackpot from Vegas.
