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SINGAPORE : The US$5.5 billion Marina Bay Sands integrated resort is betting its chips on the Southeast Asian market.
The region is expected to account for over a third of its business in Singapore, according to Sheldon Adelson, the chairman of its parent company Las Vegas Sands.
He said the company is also considering building integrated resorts in Europe and Japan.
The Marina Bay Sands resort, which was partially opened on Tuesday, April 27, is expected to break even in 5 years.
At a corporate event on Wednesday, Las Vegas Sands chairman Sheldon Adelson was asked if anything would derail that plan.
He said: "Nothing."
Marina Bay Sands will be targeting primary markets like Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore.
Combined, these countries will make up some 40 per cent of Marina Bay Sands' business (10 per cent each from Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand; and 8 per cent from Vietnam. China will account for about 6 per cent of its business.
Mr Adelson said the resort's location in the heart of the city will help to attract convention-based business during the weekdays and the leisure crowd over the weekends. So he said there will be virtually no off-peak period at Marina Bay Sands.
The company is also looking to fly customers from the Middle East to Singapore.
Mr Adelson said: "We have a wide body ... VIP style and we move people back and forth on these flights. We have two, three planes in Macau. We will move them over here, because they are going to bring in people left and right."
He said Asia will rival Las Vegas, which is currently home to 125 casinos - 35 of them located along The Strip - and 140,000 hotel rooms.
He added: "Asia could use 5 or 10 Las Vegases fully built out with 140,000 rooms each. That would give you from 700,000 to 1.4 million rooms for destination resorts for people all over Asia to go to. And in my opinion, you will never saturate the market.
Marina Bay Sands is expected to be fully operational around end-June.
- CNA/al
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