It has been handed over back to China from Portugal on Dec. 1999 but under the policy of "one country, two systems", its unique European atmosphere still remains the same and keep attract millions of tourists every year. And the numbers of those tourists keep growing due to Chinese economy growth -over 50% of the visitors are from mainland China and 30% are from Hong Kong-.
Of course, the main reason which attracts those tourists is the casinos.
In 2006, Macau's gambling business has made 6.95 billion US dollars revenue, surpassed Las Vegas and made it the world's top casino market.
One of the oldest casino & hotel is the Lisboa -one of Macau's icon, the hotel with 1071 rooms- in the middle of the downtown Macau peninsula. It's opened in 1970 and the new hotel "Grand Lisboa" design as lotus flower with 431 rooms 52F, just opened next to it in 2008.
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| Newly opened Grand Lisboa, original hotel Lisboa and the casino. |
Some other hotels opened in Peninsula side within a past 5years are;
MGM grand with 600 rooms 35F opened in 2007, Sofitel with 408 rooms 20F opened in 2008, Mandarin Oriental with 213 rooms -without casino- opened in 2010.
Across the bridge to islands of Taipa and Coloane.
In between those two islands are now connected by landfill forming the Cotai Strip.
This area is booming now!
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| Four Seasons Hotel and the Venetian |
Macau's new icon the Venetian is opened with 2,874 rooms (!) in 2007 and Four Seasons just right next to it opened in 2008 with 360 rooms. Grand Hyatt across the street opened in 2009 with 791 rooms. New casino complex Galaxy is just open this year, 2011, in May which includes hotels from Japan -Hotel Okura-, Thailand -Banyan Tree- and its own Galaxy hotel with 1,500 rooms.
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| GALAXY MACAU |
And soon, another complex is going to be opened just across from the Venetian and Four Seasons.
Scheduled to open early in next year, 2012. It includes hotels by Starwood group -Sheraton and St.Regis- and others (it was planed to be Shangri-La and Traders but the agreement between the hotels and casino complex was terminated for some reasons in March. -see the news on "Macau Daily Times").
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| New complex is under construction. The building in the left was supposed to be Shangri-La's and you can still see it's logo on top. |
Those luxury hotels are opening with casinos after Macau's new law.
In 2002, the Macau government ended the monopoly system and opened it to other companies from outside. Since then, casino complexes' opening rush is continuously going though it was slowed down for a period of time after American economy corrupted by "Lehman Shock" in 2008.
We will see all new Macau within a couple of years....
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