MACAU BUSINESS
throughout the pandemic, we have been repositioning ourselves to be more mass-oriented, more family-friendly,” he says of the property, which officially opened in 2015. What Melco has described as “Asia’s largest indoor and outdoor water parks” in Phase 2 is part of the attractions that are believed to help the Cotai resort achieve this goal. An outdoor water park, named “Studio City Water Park,” was launched last year, boasting multiple waterslides and rides. This outdoor attraction reopened last month, upon the beginning of the pool season in the city, and will soon be complemented by an indoor water park where visitors can enjoy the water splash during all seasons. In regards to the indoor water park, which will feature more
wave pools and slides, as well as a surfing centre, the general manager remarks: “I go in about every two weeks to take a look at it, and I continue to be amazed. Having an indoor water park that we can open year-round, seven days a week, [and] we don’t have to worry about inclement weather anymore, is going to give us a very unique selling proposition for Studio City.”
More rooms
Other highlights of the Phase 2 development include the Super Fun Zone, an entertainment facility of more than 28,000 square feet over four floors. “It’s going to be something for anyone from toddlers and all the way up to adults,” Mr. Benning indicates. “This is somewhere you could do team bonding, bringing your team from work to go and climb a rock wall or do a rope course… On one of the floors there’s a giant net that allows people to jump up and down, and climb up and down between multiple layers.” The 28,000+ square foot zone, also featuring a massive
treehouse and party rooms for children to hold parties, is expected to open its doors this July. “I was personally playing in it last week; that’s how enjoyable it is. It’s going to be an amazing addition to Studio City,” he adds. Enhancing its existing supply of about 1,600 hotel rooms,
Phase 2 will bring about 900 extra guest rooms and suites across two new towers to Studio City. One of them will be “W Macau – Studio City,” the first W Hotel in the city, via the strategic partnership between the resort and Marriott International, which operates more than 30 internationally acclaimed hotel brands that include W Hotels. W Macau is designed to have 557 guest rooms, including 127 suites, a spa, a gymnasium and an indoor swimming pool as well as an event and meeting space of about 1,100 square metres. Another new hotel tower will be self-managed by the resort
operator, like the existing Celebrity and Star Towers in Studio City. “Celebrity is much more of a MICE-oriented hotel, and Star is a great Forbes five-star hotel, but Star’s rooms are not quite [as] big… versus our new self-operated hotel, which is going to provide us with more premium room products,” Mr Benning explains, adding that the new self-operated hotel will have around 350 rooms. “It’s going to be a very contemporary, luxurious hotel with multiple duplex villas and more suites.” This additional room supply is poised to help expedite the MICE business of Studio City, which now boasts 4,000 square meters of indoor event space and the 5,000-seat Studio City Event Centre. “From a MICE business perspective, it wasn’t always our key focus in the past because we didn’t have the rooms. With an additional 900 rooms coming on board, it
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opens us up completely to more of that [MICE] market and more of the family market,” he notes, adding that the new MICE facilities in W Macau will be focused on events for smaller groups and catering to “a bespoke, luxury meeting experience.”
Adjustment
Apart from these offerings, the Phase 2 development of the project will also comprise a six-screen Cineplex, a retail complex and a gaming space of more than 2,300 square metres, Melco has said. Talking briefly about the new gaming space in the interview, Mr Benning states: “It’ll be premium, mass-oriented, [and] aligned with our Qi Long experience
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