A team of Queensland tourism officials will be traveling to Macau and Las Vegas in a bid to attract major gaming and hospitality operators to the Australian state, local media reports.
The team will be led by Queensland Tourism Minister Kate Jones. The trips to the two major casino gambling hubs are set to begin from next week. Government officials will be meeting with representatives from the likes of Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International to encourage them to invest into building integrated resorts in Queensland.
Caesars has already expressed interest in operating in the Australian state. Casino News Daily reported last summer that the Las Vegas casino giant had been in talks to join the A$3-billion scheme for the construction of a Gold Coast integrated resort. The project had been introduced by Chinese-backed ASF Consortium, but was rejected later that summer. It was understood that the plan’s failure had little impact on Caesars’ interest to expand to Australia and Queensland in particular.
Minister Jones told local media that her team’s strategy would be based around drawing a greater number of visitors who stay longer and spend more in the state. Jobs will thus be created for locals. According to previous estimates, Queensland’s casino industry is worth more than A$25 billion and supports over 200,000 jobs.
Global Tourism Hub Concept
The upcoming trips to Las Vegas and Macau will be part of the Queensland government strategy’s to boost local tourism by luring investors to invest into the development of global tourism hubs or mixed-use properties with casino gaming, accommodation options, and entertainment facilities, among others.
The Queensland government is planning to issue two casino licenses, one for a global tourism hub in Cairns, and the other for the Gold Coast.
It is also important to note that Australian casino operator The Star Entertainment Group and a consortium of Asian partners are currently building a multi-billion resort in Brisbane as part of the government’s tourism growth strategy.
The Queensland government launched last October a Registration of Interest process for a A$1-billion global tourism hub development in Cairns. Interested parties had until January 23 to submit their responses to the invitation.
Tourism officials then revealed that they have received 12 registrations of interest and that several of them were submitted by some of the world’s largest gaming and hospitality companies. While the names of the companies were not disclosed for commercial-in-confidence reasons, there were reports that Caesars and Camodia’s NagaCorp were among them. According to reports from last summer, NagaCorp had previously expressed interest in expanding to Cairns. The company currently manges the NagaWorld Hotel & Entertainment complex in the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh.
Other international operators as well as ones based in Australia and Queensland have also registered interest in the Cairns development.
The post Queensland Tourism Officials to Meet with Casino Companies as Part of State Tourism Growth Strategy appeared first on Casino News Daily.
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