Singapore remains Asia’s gold standard for integrated resort development. As Japan fine tunes its approach to IR regulation and Macau contemplates re-tendering casino concessions, Singapore illustrates what to do – and what to do differently.
Lesson 1: Know what you want–and be right. Singapore had clear objectives for its initial IR experiment. It wanted and got a world class theme park, Universal Studios at Genting’s Resorts World Sentosa, and a global scale convention center at Las Vegas Sands’ Marina Bay Sands. Now, as the price of increased hotel and casino capacity, Marina Bay Sands will construct a 15,000 seat arena, an alternative to aging Singapore Indoor Stadium, and RW Sentosa will expand Universal Studios and make its aquarium the world’s largest. RW Sentosa will also revamp its waterfront into a “dining and lifestyle district” complimenting similar moves on the south end of Singapore island.