GGRAsia – GLP’s Palazzo Versace soft opening by end-Apr: Daisy Ho

GLP’s Palazzo Versace soft opening by end-Apr: Daisy Ho

Mar 15, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Palazzo Versace Macau, a luxury hotel part of Cotai casino resort Grand Lisboa Palace (GLP), is likely to have a “soft opening around the end of April”, said on Wednesday Daisy Ho Chiu Fung, chairman of the property’s promoter, Macau casino operator SJM Holdings Ltd.

“This is a tentative schedule,” stated Ms Ho, referring to the target date for the launch of Palazzo Versace Macau. The casino operator would at a later stage announce a “grand opening date” for the luxury hotel, she said, adding that the firm was planning to invite representatives of the Versace fashion house to take part in the ceremony.

Ms Ho was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a Wednesday media briefing on the “SJM Macao International Dragon Boat Races”, an event scheduled for June, and co-organised by the Macau government.

SJM Holdings’ management had previously mentioned plans to launch the remainder of its hotel-room inventory at the Grand Lisboa Palace resort, along with further gaming tables, within the second quarter this year. That was according to comments from a number of brokerages in memos issued last week citing remarks by the firm’s management following the group’s full-year 2022 results release.

Currently, only circa 30 percent of Grand Lisboa Palace’s approximately 1,900 hotel-rooms have been opened so far, stated the brokerages. The Cotai resort’s rooms in service are respectively housed in the hotels Grand Lisboa Palace Macau and The Karl Lagerfeld.

On a separate note, Ms Ho said on Wednesday that her firm’s non-gaming focus this year would be on hosting and sponsoring sports events.

“We are honoured to host the international dragon boat race; and in addition to that, we will have a martial arts event in the summer. Afterwards, we will also do a golf event, and in December, the China Open [tennis tournament],” Ms Ho noted. “Of course, we are also going to participate in the 70th Macau Grand Prix this year.”

Regarding other kind of entertainment offerings, such as performances and shows, Ms Ho stated: “In this field we have to admit that, compared to our peers [in Macau], we need a bit more time to arrange such entertainment events…so, for this year our priority is to focus on sports events.”

Ms Ho conceded that an issue for her company to host large-scale entertainment events was the size of dedicated venues at the group’s properties, which is “smaller” compared to the venues offered by other Macau operators. But, she added, the SJM group was committed to organising such entertainment and cultural events.