MGM Opens New Resort in Macau
Date: March 2018
Location: Macau, China
Name: MGM Cotai – five star
No. of Keys: 1390 plus 6 restaurants and 4 bars, casino, Tria spa (Membership 28,888 Macau Pataca, just shy of €3,000 per year for the Spa at both MGM hotels in Macau), gym, pool
Owner: MGM … MGM Cotai is the latest addition to the MGM portfolio in China, and their 2nd hotel in Macau, which they bill as an integrated resort which redefines the way people experience art and entertainment through seamlessly integrated technology.
MGM COTAI introduces first-of-its-kind entertainment experiences through the Spectacle and MGM Theater. It is home to a unique art collection of over 300 pieces of contemporary art with a theme of bridging the East and West, tradition and technology, and is also one of the largest permanent art collections in Macau.
The resort is a creative culinary destination with never-before-seen-in-Macau dining concepts curated by world-renowned celebrity chefs.
The MGM Cotai in Macau made headlines a few years ago thanks to its extravagant design, which was intended to mimic a typical Chinese jewelry box. The copper, silver and gold colours of the facade are highly decorative and shimmer with the reflections of the surrounding buildings and water.
Construction on the property started in 2015 and it was slated to open in 2017, but opened in February 2018, just in time for Chinese New Year.
The new casino resort in Cotai is arriving in a Macau that faces an uncertain future, given that China could possibly grant a gambling licence to the nearby island of Hainan.
Not only that, but gambling tourism is spreading across Asia, so Macau is not just the only destination in the region for people looking to take advantage of its specific offerings.
Margaret Huang, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said, “It will be difficult for MGM to beat other competitors’ new resorts ramp-up. Macau will always face regulatory risk from any changes from China.
Operators will also face greater pressure from more new resorts and additional Asian gambling destinations.” Another potential challenge facing new, gambling-focused properties in Macau is the effort to re-brand the destination as a family-friendly vacation spot to try and offer more than just the gambling scene that the territory is known for.
However, with the opening of this new hotel it is hoped there will come a renewed and bolstered interest in gambling too.
Grant Bowie, CEO of MGM China Holdings Ltd. seemed confident on the issue, saying, “We live in a world with many business distractions. Any business needs to have the resilience and capacity. The Macau market can overcome any of these challenges that present themselves.”
MGM have some new openings planned…Park MGM Las Vegas (Spring 2018), MGM Grand New Delhi (should have been open by now!) and MGM Springfield, MA, USA (Q3 2018)
Cost: US$3.4bn
Cost per Key: US$2,446,043
THPT Comment: MGM, headed up by James Murren CEO, has 24 resort hotels in the USA, 13 in Las Vegas alone. In China they formed a JV with Diaoyutai Hospitality, in 2007, with four hotels open and 10 hotels in the pipeline, all in China except the Diaoyutai Mansion due to open in Frankfurt in 2019, although the two Macau properties appear to be owned by MGM China Holdings Ltd, which MGM own 56% of.
First Seen: Top Hotel News