Venetian Macao opens August 28

The Las Vegas Sands Corp. has now confirmed that The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel will celebrate its grand opening in just two months - August 28 - along Cotai Strip.

Sheldon Adelson, chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp., and the brainchild behind the Cotai Strip said of the opening: “As this one-of-a-kind destination resort opens, and our development of the Cotai Strip continues, Macao will begin its transformation into the type of business and tourist destination only dreamt of in the past and in doing so fulfilling the desire of the government to turn Macao into a premier leisure, entertainment, and meeting and convention destination.”

The Venetian is expected to open in August with most of the hotel fully operational, plus the casino, the arena and meetings/convention space. An estimated 23 restaurants including the resort's signature restaurants Morton's, Roka and Canton Restaurant will also open in August along with more than 100 Grand Canal Shoppes, according to a source at the resort.

The resort features 3,000 all-suite rooms, 1.2 million square feet of meeting, convention and exhibition space, more than 40 restaurants, a 15,000-seat arena, one million square feet of retail space which can house 350 shops and an 1,800-seat Cirque du Soleil theater (to open in 2008),

“With the opening of The Venetian Macao, we are now uniquely positioned as the first destination resort in Macao to offer all the integrated amenities necessary to attract a multi-night visitor,” Bill Weidner, president and COO of Las Vegas Sands says.

When the Venetian opens in August, it will mark the first phase of the Cotai Strip development which will see the opening of 20,000 hotel rooms over the next two years, plus more retail, MICE and gaming space. The other hotels to open will be owned by LVS, but managed by major hotel operators including: the Four Seasons, Sheraton, St. Regis, Shangri-La, Traders, Hilton, Conrad, Fairmont, Raffles, Swiss Hotel, the InterContinental, Holiday Inn and the Cosmopolitan.

All of the properties will be connected by enclosed pedestrian walkways. The Cotai Strip will also be home to six Las Vegas-style showrooms and a large arena used for a wide variety of sports and entertainment content – in all the Cotai Strip will be home to more than 25,000 seats of live entertainment.

“World-class entertainment offerings are an important component of Macao’s future as an international tour and travel destination and The Venetian Macao is pleased to lead the way in bringing these events to Macao,“ Weidner says. “The first example of this comes on July 23, about one month before the opening of The Venetian Macao, when we will sponsor The Venetian Macao Cup featuring the Manchester United Football Club in a match with the Shenzhen Xiangxue Eifiti in Macao.”

Weidner says additional events to be held in conjunction with the grand opening of the Venetian will be announced shortly.