Marina Bay Sands to become a benchmark
With a collection of celebrity chefs, leading fashion, nightlife, and luxury spa operators, Marina Bay Sands (MBS), the unit of Las Vegas Sands Corp. in Singapore, held its opening celebration yesterday and with it company officials predicted the property would lead in a new era of international tourism development.
“Marina Bay Sands is really the future of tourism development. For countries serious about boosting tourism and creating new jobs, the integrated resort model is unmatched and Marina Bays Sands will now be the reference point by which all new tourism projects are judged,” Sheldon Adelson told a media crowd of about 1,100 journalists from over 60 countries.
Saying that the USD 5.5 billion resort will become the benchmark for future tourism development elsewhere, the billionaire added, “The MBS is not a casino-centric development project as in the old days.” He explained that the resort is a multi-amenities integrated facility, which caters to all categories of visitors. “The casino is a destination by itself, no longer the hub,” he added.
Among LVS integrated resorts, the MBS is the fourth, with the casino occupying less than 10 percent of its amenities. And that, he explained, is the secret behind the success. In Macau, he described, the casino at The Venetian – the world’s biggest gaming space – “occupies only 4 percent of the total amount of space.”
“The key for developing an integrated resort is to have in mind that the sum of the parts is the most important thing,” he added, saying that no casino in any integrated resort should occupy more than 10 percent of the total space. “That is what I recommend to governments.”
According to the LVS chairman, for countries serious about boosting tourism and creating new jobs, the integrated resort model is unmatched. “I think the Government of Singapore is pleased with what we achieved here. Our success is their success,” he said ahead of the resorts’ grand opening ceremony.
“It’s going to change Singapore by providing entertainment amenities that were not here before,” he added.
18 million visitors a year
LVS Venetian Macau gets about 40,000 visitors to its shopping malls during the week and about 65,000 on weekends, Adelson said. Visitors to MBS shops should be “more than twice as many, reaching 125,000 visitors daily” when it is fully open, Adelson predicted.
But Thomas Arasi, president and chief executive officer of Marina Bay Sands, gave a more conservative forecast. “We expect to attract over 70,000 visits a day and 18 million visitors a year after we are fully open,” he said.
“Marina Bay Sands will deliver an entertainment, leisure and business experience unlike any other in the world. Our amazing range of attractions […] will have guests coming back again and again to experience every aspect we have to offer,” Arasi added.
For now, the casino alone attracts some 25,000 visitors daily and close to 500,000 visitors this month, one-third of which are Singaporeans, with two-thirds being foreigners. However, as LVS chief operating officer Michael Leven said, that is “a false number.”
“As we develop our business I think we’ll have around 20 percent of locals and 80 percent of foreigners,” he forecasted.
LVS officials expected the majority of visitors to come from three market segments, but they are also aiming at countries outside Asia.
The primary concentric-circle comprises Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia with the second being Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. Finally, the third segment comprises Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, China, Korea, Japan, India and the Philippines. However, some Middle East and European countries are also potential markets for LVS resort in Singapore. “There is more than enough business for us to succeed here,” Adelson stated.
Marina Bay Sands is forecast to generate earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of USD 329 million in 2010, based on the average of 13 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
The remaining two-thirds of the 2,500 hotel rooms were opened yesterday, together with more retail shops, restaurants and additional meetings and conventions facilities. The Skypark and 160 metre-long swimming pool atop three 55-floor hotel towers will open to the public from 2 pm today.
The Art Science Museum, two theatres, two floating pavilions on the bay and the rest of the mall are expected to be progressively completed throughout the year.
The island nation’s first integrated resort casino, Resorts World Sentosa owned by Genting International, which includes a Universal Studios theme park, opened in February.
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