Posted Oct 1, 2016, 1:09 PM
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NYC/NJ/Miami-Dade
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Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Riverview Estates Fairway (PA)
Posts: 45,859
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Las Vegas, Asian investors bet on Sin City’s Chinese tourism
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Sin City and Asian investors are going all in on Chinese tourism as some of Las Vegas’ latest developments on and off the Strip target Chinese nationals and Chinese-Americans.
The Chinese have been regulars along the resort corridor for decades. Now, officials and developers intent on capitalizing on burgeoning Chinese wealth and Asian-American population growth are courting them in a major way.
Nonstop flights from mainland China are planned for the first time, and two Asian-themed casinos will be among the first post-recession additions to Sin City’s glittering skyline.
The new hotel-casinos boast of plans for what some other resorts such as the MGM Grand, Wynn and Venetian have quietly offered for years. Guests will be treated to familiar foods, Chinese-speaking service employees and the table game of choice, baccarat.
“The Chinese do quite enjoy a very Chinese experience. They do gravitate toward Asian amenities. At Wynn Macau, it’s mostly Chinese restaurants and menus in Chinese,” said Alex Bumazhny, gambling analyst with Fitch Ratings.
The Lucky Dragon Hotel and Casino is expected to open this fall, and Resorts World Las Vegas is set to begin construction in earnest by year’s end.
By Las Vegas’ standards, Lucky Dragon is a modestly sized property set on 3 acres just off the Strip. It will have 200 hotel rooms and a casino floor spanning 27,000 square feet.
Lucky Dragon executives said the new casino will focus on domestic Chinese gamblers, calling them an underserved niche market made up of Chinese people who live in America’s ethnic enclaves, including local Las Vegans, the reliable weekend hordes from California, and tourists from the Pacific Northwest and East Coast.
The mega resorts catering to Chinese gamblers target “ultra-high-end players,” while the more casual Chinese bettors are left with more generic amenities designed for “American white people,” said Dave Jacoby, Lucky Dragon’s chief operating officer.
“We’re playing on the existing market that isn’t served well,” Jacoby said.
The developer is a privately held entity known as the Las Vegas Economic Impact Regional Center. The casino is financed with money from Chinese investors through the EB-5 visa program, which grants green cards to foreigners in return for investments of at least $500,000 on job-creating projects. Lucky Dragon was an easy sell given Las Vegas’ appeal in China, Jacoby said.
For the years-delayed Resorts World on the Strip’s northern end, the blossoming Chinese tourism business will be a bonus by the time it opens, now projected for March 2019.
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http://bigstory.ap.org/article/4d6a9...hinese-tourism
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