122 Gaming
they have facilitated additions to the
country’s tourism infrastructure that
they have long wanted, but could not
get investors to build on a stand-alone
basis,” hotel and leisure consultant Hor-
wath Asia Pacific Managing Director
Robert Hecker says.
For the downtown Marina Bay site,
STB strongly suggested a convention
centre – and it chose LVS to build it, a
company that almost single-handedly
transformed Las Vegas into a hub for
MICE travel.
For the Sentosa Island site, which
the government had tried to develop as a
recreation destination for more than de-
cade, STB suggested a theme park – and
Location, location, location
it chose Genting, which had an exclusive
deal to develop the first Universal Stu-
dios park in Southeast Asia.
“California is famous for having
O
ne key reason that las Vegas Sands’ Singapore shopping mall is likely to
outperform its Macau sister is down to the top three rules in real estate –
location, location, location.
Disneyland, Florida is famous for hav-
comparing the maps of Singapore and Macau, the Marina Bay Sands
ing Disney World, and Singapore will
location is the equivalent of the Sands Macao site in NaPE, just outside the main
become known for having Universal
downtown area.
Studios,” University of Nevada, Las Ve-
While lVS has done very well with the Sands casino, there’s no question that it
gas Singapore Dean Dr Andy Nazare- is a far better location for retailing than the Venetian Macao site.
chuk predicts. In fact, the location of the Venetian Macao resembles Singapore’s other
“Singapore’s Universal Studios casino resort site, resorts World Sentosa (rWS). Both are part of a purpose-built
won’t be a scaled down version but the
recreation and leisure zone isolated from the main population centre with limited
best in the world.”
public transportation access. Rather than fight those factors, RWS will offer a
Three-quarters of the park’s 24 at-
limited retail menu, mostly geared toward dining and entertainment.
tractions are new or substantially re-
But, of course, if Singapore’s government just let developers build whatever
vamped for Singapore. Authorities re-
they wanted, there’s little doubt that two of the world’s largest casinos would be the
centrepieces of the Irs.
fused to grant RWS a casino license
M.C.
until the theme park was ready.
The government initially proposed
a punitive tax on resorts where gam-
ing revenue exceeded 50 percent of to-
tal revenue. Even though that idea was
dropped, some developers disliked the
government’s heavy hand.
Steve Wynn accused the authorities
of trying to “micromanage” the casinos
and refused to bid for Singapore’s sites.
As a result of its criteria, the government
got properties that aren’t focused on
gambling, and Wynn now says he’d wel-
come another chance to bid if Singapore
ever offers more licenses.
Conventional wisdom
The attractions in the new IRs can tap
into Singapore’s existing local market
and tourism base, unlike Macau, where
integrated resorts need to create mar-
kets for activities other than gambling.
“Singapore has an established reputa-
tion as a leading tourism and conven-
tion destination,” Marina Bay Sands
(MBS) CEO and President Thomas
Arasi says.
MICE facilities at MBS build on
March 2010
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