GGRAsia – CoD Macau to get hotel named Libertine, gaming revamp: Ho

CoD Macau to get hotel named Libertine, gaming revamp: Ho

May 15, 2018 Newsdesk G2E Asia 2018, Latest News

A hotel tower at the City of Dreams Macau casino resort that has carried the temporary branding “The Countdown” will in future be known as “Libertine”, said on Tuesday Lawrence Ho Yau Lung (pictured), chairman and chief executive of Asian casino developer Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd.

The new brand is due to be launched around the same time as the opening of the US$1-billion Morpheus, a new hotel tower at the Cotai flagship resort of the group. Morpheus is due to open before the end of June, and will feature approximately 770 hotel rooms, suites and villas.

The company had mentioned before that The Countdown would be redeveloped “into a luxury hotel concept that better fits the overall positioning of City of Dreams”.

The opening of Morpheus and the launching of the new hotel brand will “help us relaunch City of Dreams Macau,” Mr Ho had said previously.

The Countdown name was introduced in July last year, replacing the Hard Rock brand at City of Dreams Macau, following a corporate change at Melco Resorts.

The City of Dreams Macau property is undergoing a major revamp. The Crown Towers hotel tower at the property was renamed Nüwa with effect from January.

Commenting on the property revamp, Mr Ho said City of Dreams Macau would offer different styles of accommodation: “Morpheus, the ultra sleek, cool modern hotel; Nüwa, the ultra chique classic Chinese; and Libertine, the ultra funky sexy rebel”.

Mr Ho’s comments came during his keynote address at the start of the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia 2018 at the Venetian Macao casino resort on Tuesday.

The executive said additionally that Melco Resorts would be announcing next month a “whole new aspect to gaming” at City of Dreams Macau.

Melco Resorts announced earlier this month a US$100 million investment to upgrade the gaming areas and the non-gaming attractions at City of Dreams Macau and its 60-percent owned Studio City property.

The company also plans to reinvent the retail concept at City of Dreams Macau, said on Tuesday Mr Ho.

“For the first time ever we are going to be creating our own shopping environment, running the whole place as a pop up, inviting the coolest brands in the world into a 1,500 square metres [16,146 sq feet] space, a wholly different concept,” he added.

The executive also announced the launching of new entertainment offerings at Studio City, including a new show in December, produced in collaboration with London-based entertainment architects Stufish, a company specialising in stadium concert stage designs and which created the concepts for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“They [Stufish] are going to do for us an incredible new-style show opening in December, and that is after we open Asia’s largest VR [virtual reality] zone … and a fantastic new street of food and beverage,” said the Melco Resorts CEO.

Mr Ho stated that what the company has done so far would help in its potential bid for a casino licence in Japan, with a team in place actively engaging interested entities in that country.

The executive described Melco Resorts as a company at the forefront of technology. “It’s my aim to be the most data-driven and analytical, fact-based operator here in Asia. The data we gather, how we analyse it and how we respond in real time to deliver experiences for our guests that will amaze them,” Mr Ho added.

(Updated at 5.40pm, May 15, to amend the hotel brand name to Libertine, instead of Liberty as written in the original post.)