Picture : The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel MACAU : Macau's biggest casino, the Venetian Macao, opens on Tuesday.
Operated by Las Vegas Sands, it aims to turn the territory from a gambling paradise into a family entertainment centre to rival Las Vegas.
Costing US$2.5 billion, it's billed as the world's largest casino.
The integrated mega-resort by America's Las Vegas Sands is billionaire owner Sheldon Adelson's crowning glory.
"Our fear is that the 20,000 rooms we have will be woefully inadequate," said Adelson, who is owner and chairman of Las Vegas Sands.
The 74-year-old's recipe for success is to re-create the popular Las Vegas experience in Macau, and transform the territory from a gambling pit stop for Chinese tourists to a family vacation destination, as well as a business convention hub.
There's an exhibition space the size of 12 soccer fields, bigger than anything neighbouring Hong Kong has to offer, and more than 350 retail outlets, along with fine dining restaurants, Italian gondolas and Chinese sampans.
It also has a sports stadium that can fill 15,000 seats for world-class entertainment, plus a resident Cirque du Soleil show.
The mega-resort aims to entice guests to stay longer than the current average of 1.2 days.
To run the sprawling resort, the Venetian has hired about 15,000 people - that's five percent of the working population of Macau.
By 2009, there'll be 20,000 hotel rooms with brands like the Four Seasons, Sheraton and St Regis, which has already signed on.
The world's most valuable casino operator also has other big plans in the rest of Asia.
A Sands integrated resort is opening in Singapore in 2009, and the corporation's busy lobbying in Japan and India as well.
"In gaming, we're interested in opening anywhere in Asia that welcomes a gaming centre, and duplicating that experience as what we have established here," said Adelson.
The Venetian Macao is the Chinese Special Administrative Region's (SAR) 27th casino.
While hopes are high for the territory's future growth, some analysts said it'll take some time for Macau to become as diversified a travel destination as Las Vegas.
But going by current figures, the SAR has already overtaken the Las Vegas strip in terms of revenue. - CNA /ls
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