The Macau Metro Monitor, January 13, 2012
SINGAPORE ROLLS THE DICE ON NEW CASINO RAIL LINK Wall Street Journal
The Circle Line, the island nation's 4th mass rapid transit line, will open a 2.4-kilometer extension this Saturday. What the extension will do, with the opening of Bayfront station (which sits between the Circle Line’s Promenade and Marina South), is plug Singapore’s famed Marina Bay Sands directly into the public transport network – a bit of a roll of the dice on planners’ parts, given that Singapore doesn’t really want to encourage more locals to go gambling there.
John Postle, executive director of The Shoppes, MBS's lavish shopping mall, says the new station “allows our visitors to access Marina Bay Sands with ease from all parts of the island.”
MGM MACAU INCREASES SALARIES Macau Business
MGM Macau will increase the salaries of all non-management team members by 5% and give them a Chinese New Year bonus payout. However, MGM does not say when these will take place or how much the bonus payout will be.
WYNN SAYS OKADA ACTION IS 'PREPOSTEROUS AND WITHOUT MERIT' Macau Business
WYNN said Kazuo Okada's lawsuit is "preposterous and without merit" and the company will defend all claims vigorously. Kazuo Okada had filed a motion to seek access to the company’s financial records
WYNN says this action is an attempt by Okada to deflect attention from a dispute between him and the company related to Okada’s wanting to pursue a project in the Philippines “despite repeated admonishments from the board.” This would directly compete with WYNN. WYNN also said, “Mr. Okada received the same information as all directors with respect to charitable contributions made by the company.”
PACKAGE TOURS AND HOTEL OCCUPANCY RATE FOR NOVEMBER 2011 DSEC
Visitors in package tours soared by 70.3% YoY to 767,208 in November 2011. Visitors from Mainland China (574,212); Taiwan (45,522); Hong Kong (35,659) and the Republic of Korea (27,453) surged by 79.0%, 131.9%, 64.5% and 103.3% respectively.
At the end of November 2011, number of available guest rooms of hotels and guest-houses totaled 22,335, up by 2,276 rooms (+11.3%) YoY, with that of 5-star hotels accounting for 63.5% of the total. The average length of stay of guests held stable at 1.5 nights, same as in November 2010.