A slew of hotels that have opened, and are opening, in Macau’s glitzy Cotai Strip, are looking at rewriting the rules of the game by focusing on food, luxury facilities and local experiences, instead of merely their casinos. Macau is fast losing its charm as the world’s glitziest gambling destination, and needs new attractions to woo luxury travelers.

Cotai Strip

 

Just a few months ago, Cotai Strip, the uber luxury neighborhood in Macao, saw the opening of its ritziest property: St Regis Macao.

The jewel among the scintillating galaxy of shining hotels and casinos, St Regis Macao, owned by Venetian Orient Limited, an affiliate of Sands China Ltd, is a 400-room hotel with commanding impressive views of the Cotai strip, and features facilities like a signature butler service, exceptional culinary venues and grand design. Talking about the hotel, Jim Petrus, Global Brand Leader, St. Regis Hotels and Resorts, says, “There is an ever-increasing demand for luxury around the globe and Macau is no exception, especially with the recent proliferation of luxury brands in the market and a record number of visitors to the destination in 2015.”

Parisian Macau

 

St Regis Macao has focused the spotlight on Cotai Strip, which, after ten years of rapid development, has elevated its status to a world-class tourism and luxury destination. As Petrus says, “The second phase of the Cotai Strip will offer a much more diversified experience for a new generation of luxury travelers.”

The coveted Cotai Strip is a relaxed resort destination that offers travelers premier shopping, dining and entertainment facilities. The Cotai Strip — a line of casino hotels in the Cotai area of Macau, resembles the famous Las Vegas strip, and boasts world-class hotels ranging like the Venetian, Four Seasons and the Sands resorts.  Most offer splendid entertainment options, from casinos to extravagant stage shows.

These resorts are extravagant air-conditioned mini cities, with soaring marble columns and shiny travertine floors. Clearly, Cotai Strip is turning out to be a luxury resort destination, and if things go according to plan, by the end of 2017, it will see an additional six integrated resorts offering approximately 9,180 new hotel rooms. While gambling revenue continues its year-on-year decline – VIP gaming revenue fell by 40 per cent last year following Beijing’s crackdown on government corruption – developers are now placing bets on the new resorts to help Macau recapture some of its allure.

THE 13, Macau

 

There is Wynn Palace, the second local offering from Wynn Resorts after the Wynn Macau, a US$4.1 billion floral-themed hotel pegged to open August 22. It will feature a 28-storey hotel with 1,700 rooms and suites. Interestingly, the property will be the first stop on Macau’s new light-rail system connecting the ferry landing to the Cotai Strip. An aerial tram system, with air conditioned gondolas resembling smoke-breathing dragons, will carry customers across a 3.2 hectare performance lake from the light-rail station into the heart of the resort. The lake, situated at the front entrance, will be lined with restaurants, while flower gardens in various shapes and themes, such as hot-air balloons, will be spread throughout the property.

Then there is THE 13, a US$1 billion property which will have 200 multilevel suites, each with the elevator opening directly into it. Of the all-villa hotel’s 200 rooms, most will be Villa du Comte with a gross floor area of approximately 2,000 square feet, while 31 are even larger, topping out at a monumental 30,000 square feet for the Villa de Stephen. Designed by New York architect Peter Marino, creator of flagship stores for the likes of Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, the hotel will be a blend of 17th-century French Renaissance and Baroque décor.

Parisian Macao, which would open later this year, or early 2017, is a US$2.7 billion French-themed resort, and will feature 2,950 guest rooms, a casino, meeting and conference spaces. Bizarrely, it will also feature a 300,000-sq ft retail mall resembling Paris’s Avenue des Champs-Élysées and featuring 130 boutiques and more than 10 restaurants, a rooftop terrace and pool resembling the gardens of Versailles, and a half-size replica of the Eiffel Tower with a viewing platform where guests can get a 360-degree view of Cotai!

The City of Dreams Hotel Tower, Macau

While most of these hotels will follow the predictable ‘Macau resort’ formula, Melco Crown’s forthcoming City of Dreams Fifth Hotel Tower project claims to be different. Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the property, spread over 150,000 square metres and 40 floors, will be encased in a striking exoskeleton steel structure – the first in the world built in tower form. Inside will be a 40-metre atrium looking up to the exterior façade that contains panoramic lifts to transport guests. The property will have approximately 780 guest rooms, suites and sky villas, and offer facilities like gaming rooms, restaurants, a big spa and the sky pool at the top of the hotel.

For Macau, and Cotai Strip, the market has changed. Wealthy Chinese guests, once their mainstay, who came to Macau in droves for placing big ticket bids in casinos, seem no longer interested in gambling. They would rather travel to a different destination to experience, and ultimately, boast about their adventures on WeChat, the popular chat app in China. This means that hotels will now have to rewire their DNA to focus less on gambling and more on the experience of being in Macau. A tough call for a destination which made its name solely on the basis of its glamorous casinos.