Comments made by the president of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company about the difficulties the group foresees in Macau is a result of the rising competition, said the co-chief executive officer of the Macao Studio City development.

Next year Ritz-Carlton is scheduled to open a hotel at the Macao Studio City property, on the southern end of the Cotai Strip. Earlier in the week, the group’s president, Simon Cooper was reported by the China Daily as saying he expects recruiting and holding on to talented employees to be the company’s biggest concern in Macau.

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Posted in Cotai Strip, Cotai Strip Hotels, Hotel Macau, Marriott Cotai, Ritz-Carlton, Tang Cotai, W Hotel Cotai No Comments »

Currently in Macau there a total of 23 hotel projects under construction and another 23 waiting for approval around the city. Statistical data indicates that the 23 hotels under construction are expected to provide about 24,000 guestrooms. Of these there are seven medium-sized hotel projects with the number of rooms ranging from 100 to 600, six large hotel projects with rooms ranging from 600 to 2000, and one super project with approximately 10,000 guestrooms. Most of the large hotel projects such as the Four Seasons Hotel at TYhe Cotai Strip, focus on the Cotai Strip area.

For the 23 projects waiting for approval, not including eight for which there is no detailed data, the remaining projects will provide a total of about 14,000 guestrooms which includes 12 hotel projects with 300 to 600 guestrooms, and two grand hotels with 3,000 to 4,000 rooms.

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Posted in Construction, Cotai Strip, Cotai Strip Hotels, Development, Four Seasons Macau, Hotel Macau, Macau Property No Comments »

Austal has signed a contract for four additional 47.5 metre passenger catamarans with Cotai WaterJets (Macao) Ltd, adding to the initial ten-vessel contract signed in 2006 by sister company Venetian Marketing Services Limited (VMSL).

CotaiJets Maiden Voyage by aomen.tv

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Melco PBL Entertainment Ltd., a developer and owner of casinos and resorts in Macau, said Tuesday its fourth-quarter loss narrowed, helped by results from its Crown Macau casino.The company’s quarterly loss narrowed to $36.5 million, or 3 cents per share, compared with a loss of $53 million, or 5 cents per share in the prior-year quarter. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a break-even results.

Revenue rose to $179.8 million, from $17.9 million last year. Crown Macau revenue totaled $153.6 million.

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There is little mention about their Macau Casinos, except on the Dec. 18 opening of the $1.25 billion MGM Grand Macau, a 50% joint venture in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau, which had preopening and start-up expenses in the 2007 quarter of $25 million related to the preopening expenses at MGM Grand Macau. It also recently obtained funding for what Lanni called “seed money” for a second project on Macau’s Cotai Strip.

Casino giant MGM Mirage Inc. reported soaring fourth-quarter profits Thursday, including a hefty gain related to its CityCenter project under construction on the Las Vegas Strip.The world’s second-largest casino company said net income surged to $872.2 million, or $2.85 per share, in the period ending Dec. 31, compared with $201.6 million, or 69 cents per share, in the same period in 2006.

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Macau welcomed almost 720,000 visitors during the Chinese New Year “Golden Week” holiday (Lunar New Year Eve to 6th day of Lunar Year), a slight growth of 0.45% over the same period in 2007. More than 390,000 or 54% of the arrivals were from Mainland China, a growth of 1.03%. During the period, an average of over 13,000 hotel rooms were rented out per day, a surge of 23%.

From February 6 to 14, Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) and the Provincial Tourism Administrations of Guangdong and Fujian have jointly operated the “Chinese New Year Tourism Notifying System” to ensure enjoyable holidays for visitors.

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Figures due this week are expected to show that Macau is bigger than Las Vegas. The former Portuguese enclave in China raked in US$10.4 billion in gaming winnings in 2007, virtually matching the 2006 take for Clark County, the Nevada jurisdiction that includes Las Vegas and surrounding areas.

If Macau misses in the 2007 data, it’s only a matter of time before it leaves Las Vegas twinkling in its rearview mirror. Macau already far outearns the famous Las Vegas Strip, even though the Strip has a 50% advantage in the number of both visitors and casinos. Minimum bets in the Chinese territory usually set at HK$100 (US$12.85), compared with a less than US$1 in some Vegas locations, allow Macau to take in far more per customer and per table than Las Vegas.

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Posted in Las Vegas Casino, MGM Grand Macau, Venetian Macao, Wynn Macau, Wynn Resorts No Comments »

We are pleased to announce that Mr Francis Lui, Deputy Chairman of Galaxy Entertainment Group (GEG), is confirmed to give the keynote address at AiG this year. Mr Lui has a unique vision for GEG and attributes the company’s success to the fact that it is owned and operated by Chinese and has a thorough background in hotel management and real estate development. The year-old StarWorld Hotel & Casino in Macau is testament to that.

But what about the group’s online ambitions? How does he see the future for land-based casinos getting into the online space? And what of the outlook for Asia?

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Posted in Cotai Strip, Exhibition, Galaxy Entertainment, Galaxy Star World, Macau Business, Macau Casino, Macau Events, Venetian Macao No Comments »