Sep

30

Cotai Strip hotels and “The Phoenix”

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, COTAI CASINOS, Cotai Strip® | Leave a Comment

I was just browsing the new Cotai Strip® website and noticed some new descriptions and pictures of the hotels that are being built by Las Vegas Sands for the Cotai Strip.  It should just take a second so you should check it out : http://www.cotaistrip.com.mo/en/show/hotels.

Also, I noticed something that I have never seen referenced before, “The Phoenix” on the Cotai Strip.  I dont think its something new, but the actual description is a bit light on the details:

Beside the Four Seasons Hotel Macao, Cotai Strip® will soon be the home of the world’s most recognized hotel brands. Together, three contemporary hotels form a “Phoenix” in what is set to become one of the most intriguing iconic structures at Cotai Strip®.

Here’s the picture of The Phoenix from the website:

The Phoenix on the Cotai Strip

Sep

27

Macao tourism infrastructure study

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, TOURISM, Cotai Strip® | Leave a Comment

Commissioned by the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macao S.A.R. and conducted by the Institute For Tourism Studies (IFT), a study was completed which aimed at providing reference estimates on the optimal social carrying capacity of Macao’s tourism industry and suggest whether the existing tourism facilities and services are adequate to cope with the rapid growth in visitor arrivals.

The survey was divided into 2 parts: The first part consisted of questionnaire interviews, on 44 selected days of 2007 which covered weekdays, weekends and days within the Golden Week periods. Both local residents and visitors were asked to express their perception on crowdedness and satisfaction with environmental quality, local transportation, food & beverage and retail services quality and waiting time, and border clearance performance. A total of 5158 residents and 5120 visitors were sampled. The interview locations included Leal Senado Square, Portas do Cerco, A-Ma Temple, Ruins of St.Paul, Cunha Street, Horta E Costa, Mesquita and New Yaohan. The second part was to collect data and information from government departments and stakeholders in several tourism-related sectors to estimate their full-load capacity. The study covered 8 main services and facilities, namely hotel accommodation, restaurants and dining, buses, taxis, ferries, border clearance, tourist attractions and inbound tour handling.  Read more

Sep

23

Macao casino revenue expected to be stable for remainder of year

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Revenue from gaming so far this year is similar to that for the same period last year, the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Tam Pak Yuen, disclosed today.

He said despite a slowdown in growth, the Government was still confident revenue would be maintained at its present level. On the recent lay-offs by a gaming operator, Mr Tam said this was not a common occurrence.

He said that each gaming company would adjust its human resources accordingly to its business. However, the adjustment should be implemented legally and reasonably, he said, and the aggrieved could bring their complaints to the Labour Affairs Bureau.  Read more

Sep

19

No trillion dollar bail-out in Macao

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The Macanese people have something to be very proud of today. There is obviously a rich, great heritage in Macao, and of course Macao is the new gambling capital of the world, but it now appears that the Macanese are also better bankers than the United States. Not just a little better, but a lot, lot, lot better. No financial melt-downs here. No ONE TRILLION DOLLAR bail-outs. Just good old fashioned banking, the way it was meant to be…you take money in, you lend it out, you take it in, you lend it out. Not a tough concept, but somehow the rest of the world, and especially the US, couldnt get it.
Macanese government press release: Read more

Sep

17

Macao Package Tours and Hotel Occupancy Rate for July 2008

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Statistics, TOURISM | Leave a Comment

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that Macao registered 406,346 visitor arrivals in package tours in July 2008, up by 27.0% from a year earlier. Visitors from Mainland China (282,412) and Southeast Asia (36,774) grew notably by 29.0% and 108.6% year-on-year, while those from Taiwan, China (24,978) decreased by 17.0%. In the first seven months of 2008, visitors arrived in package tours rose by 23.8% over the same period of 2007 to 2,819,196.

The number of Macao residents travelling outbound in package tours in July 2008 decreased by 7.5% year-on-year to 19,797. Mainland China (61.5%), Thailand (10.1%) and Japan (8.1%) were the three most popular tour itineraries. In the first seven months of 2008, Macao residents travelling in package tours rose by 5.9% over the same period of 2007 to 126,392.    Read more

Sep

13

Official Cotai Strip® website

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I’ve been wondering for a long time when Las Vegas Sands would launch an official Cotai Strip website.  It looks like the wait is over!

CotaiStrip.com.mo is now up and running for all your Cotai Strip needs.  Up until now, it looked like they had been using the Venetian Macao website for the Cotai Strip and it really only contained a few paragraphs of very basic information.  The new website looks like it will be a one stop shop.

Sep

13

Macao International Airport to expand

Filed Under Macau, Macao, TRAVEL, Macao International Airport | Leave a Comment

Macau Hub reports:

Macau International Airport (MIA) is planning to expand its facilities in the medium-term in an investment estimated at 5 billion patacas (US$625 million), MIA marketing director Antonio Rato said Wednesday in Macau.

Rato, who spoke on the sidelines of a seminar on the development of aviation business in Macau, said that in the last two years the aviation sector grew 300 percent as a result of tourist and real estate development in Macau.

MIA’s marketing director also said that the airport’s expansion plans have already been presented at the highest level “several months ago”.  Read more

Sep

8

Miss Macau 2008 crowned

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, Cotai Strip® | 1 Comment

florence loi miss macau

Congratulations to Florence Loi, who was just crowned Miss Macau 2008 at the Cotai Strip Cotai Arena. Out of 10 contestants, she was contestant #8. A coincidence? Read more

Sep

8

Macao Chief Exec: travel restrictions hurt

Filed Under Macau, Macao, TOURISM, TRAVEL | Leave a Comment

BlogMacau.info reports:

Macau’s Chief Executive admitted that recent restrictions imposed to mainland Chinese visitors not to visit Macau via Hong Kong will bring effects to Macau’s visiting numbers ‘in early stage’.Speaking before departing for Beijing for the Paralympics opening ceremony, he said that the restrictions mainly aims to ‘adjusting the arrangements of Macau’s border checkpoints as a whole’, and that they simply are ‘finetuning’ to the overall policy of individual visits to Macau and Hong Kong. Read more

Sep

6

Hengqin Island update

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From the Macau Daily Times:

(LVS’) Mr Weidner also played down the company’s plans for Hengqin Island, a 96 square kilometre piece of land between Zhuhai and Macau, admitting that the government is unlikely to allow development in the area in the foreseeable future.

Sands has previously announced it had entered into a “non-binding letter of intent with the Zhuhai Municipal government” to create a master plan to develop a tourism and convention facility on the island.

However, yesterday he said the land’s status had been elevated due to its “strategic nature” in the Pear River Delta area and because of the resulting government attention “it would be a while before anyone can carry out significant development on the island”.

“We remain interested but I think it’s realistic to say it will take some time for  Hengqin Island to find its place in the delta,” he said.

Sep

6

Some new Cotai Strip photos

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Cotai Strip 

Photos of the The Shoppes at Four Seasons Macao.  When you click on one of the categories and the picture page comes up, go to bottom to click “Next” to view additional pictures in the category.

Random photos from the Cotai Strip taken by Martin at MacauCasinoWorld.com.