Singapore Oceanarium, reportedly a replacement for a previous on-site aquarium, should be completed by the end of 2024, confirmed the management of casino complex Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), in response to an email enquiry from GGRAsia.
The ocean life display (pictured in an artist’s rendering) is part of a SGD4.5-billion (currently US$3.32-billion) spending commitment by the gaming complex’s promoter, Genting Singapore Ltd, made to the Singapore government and announced in April 2019.
This involves the so-called “2.0” expansion of Resorts World Sentosa, as part of an arrangement that sees Genting Singapore keep until 2030 its half of Singapore’s casino duopoly.
The other half of the duopoly is Marina Bay Sands, run by a unit of United States-based casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp, which has also made the same size of capital commitment as Genting Singapore, coinciding with the extension of its own rights.
At the launch last week of an environmental initiative between Resorts World Sentosa and the National University of Singapore (NUS), “it was announced that the projected completion of the Singapore Oceanarium at Resorts World Sentosa is end 2024,” affirmed the resort in its email to GGRAsia.
Tan Hee Teck, chief executive of Resorts World Sentosa, said in his speech at the launch of the “RWS-NUS Living Laboratory” that a recent survey by Booking.com, an online booking platform for hotels and travel, had found that 83 percent of respondents thought “sustainable” travel was vital, with 61 percent of those replying indicating that the Covid-19 pandemic had spurred a wish to travel in a more sustainable way in the future.
Mr Tan said his gaming resort was committing SGD10 million to the RWS-NUS Living Laboratory, to be spent on improving Singapore’s marine biodiversity and creating innovative sustainable tourism.
The property’s Singapore Oceanarium had been “conceived as part of RWS’s expansion plan,” and would be “an institution to champion awareness and protection of our environment”.
Local media reported that the new non-gaming sea life facility was a replacement for a previous on-site aquarium, and would be three times the size of the old one.
Alvin Tan Sheng Hui, Singapore’s Minister of State for Trade and Industry, said on Monday it was still unclear to what extent the expansion of the city’s two integrated resorts would be delayed as a result of disruptions to the construction industry wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic.
