Venetian opens new era for Macau

After three years of anticipation, Asia's largest integrated resort, The Venetian Macao, has finally opened its doors.

The opening ceremony for the massive hotel-casino-shopping complex took place on Tuesday, attended by 7,000 guests including Macau’s chief executive, Edmund Ho. The world-renowned Cirque du Soleil created a special performance for the event, which was brought to a climax by Hong Kong popstar Alan Tam and American soul legend Diana Ross.

Soon afterwards, thousands of guests began streaming through the doors to get their own look at the Grand Canal Shoppes, one of the biggest shopping malls in Asia and certainly the only one with a permanently blue sky – thanks to a team of Americans known as the Sky Artists. Some visitors wandered around sampling a wide selection of restaurants, while most headed straight to the main attraction: the world’s largest casino, sporting 870 tables and 3,400 slot machines.

Executives were upbeat about the opening, even while making note of the long-term vision for the entire area, which has another 14 properties under construction. “This is the first inning of a very long game,” said Sheldon G. Adelson, chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp. “I pledge to you, the people of Macau, we’ll do what we’ve promised and more.”

“Today a new era begins for Macau,” said Bill Weidner, president and COO of Las Vegas Sands Corp.

By 2010, the Venetian will have built nearly 20,000 hotel rooms on its part of Cotai, which it calls the Cotai Strip. That is nearly double Macau's entire total hotel capacity prior to the Venetian's opening. The Venetian will also build and operate seven large-scale entertainment venues and casinos linked to the Cotai hotels.