THE MACAU METRO MONITOR, DECEMBER 13, 2013
LVS NO LONGER PURSUING SPAIN DEVELOPMENT, WILL CONTINUE AGGRESSIVE PURSUIT OF OPPORTUNITIES IN ASIA LVS
"We have reiterated time and again that our internal development process would dictate the outcome of a proposed development in Spain. That process has been extremely thorough and while the government and many others have worked diligently on this effort, we do not see a path in which the criteria needed to move forward with this large-scale development can be reached. As a result we will no longer be pursuing this opportunity. As chairman and CEO, my role is not only creating a vision for the company's future, it is also fulfilling it in a way that best represents the interests of our shareholders. Developing integrated resorts in Europe has been a vision of mine for years, but there is a time and place for everything and right now our focus is on encouraging Asian countries, like Japan and Korea, to dramatically enhance their tourism offering through the development of integrated resorts there."
-Sheldon Adelson, LVS CEO
PACKAGE TOURS AND HOTEL OCCUPANCY RATE FOR OCTOBER 2013 DSEC
Macau visitor arrivals in package tour totaled 716,867 in October 2013, down by 11.5% YoY. Under the influence of the new Tourism Law in Mainland China, effective in October, visitors coming from the Mainland (526,564) decreased by 10.6% YoY, with 280,110 from Guangdong Province, which was followed by Taiwan (60,414); the Republic of Korea (34,646); and Hong Kong (34,060).
The average length of stay of guests held stable as October 2012, at 1.4 nights.
LOUIS XIII CASINO FOUNDATIONS TO BE LAID BY MAY Macau Business
The developer of the Louis XIII casino in Cotai expects the foundations to be completed in April or May. Louis XIII Holdings Ltd deputy chairman Tom Lau Ko Yuen said that construction should be finished by the second quarter of 2016.
A plan was approved to raise HK$300 million (US$38.69 million) for the project by issuing convertible bonds and another HK$141.33 million by placing out shares. Lau said the developer expected to have enough capital to finish the US$1.06 billion (MOP8.47 billion) project.
CHINA'S NEW HOLIDAY PLAN Xinhua News
The major change is reducing the number of three-day holidays by "moving" weekends; that is if a holiday falls on a Wednesday, weekends will not be moved. Holidays for 2014 will be as follows:
- Spring festival holiday which will start from Jan. 31 to Feb. 6, where holiday will start on the first day of the lunar new year instead of the new year’s eve.
- The National Day holiday will start from October 1st to 7th
- Tomb-Sweeping Day holiday will be from April 5th to 7th
- Labor Day holiday from May 1st to 3rd
- Dragon Boat festival from May 31st to June 2nd
- Mid-Autumn holiday from September 6th to 8th
The new plan believes will resolve the problem associated with the long consecutive work days prior and after holidays.
