Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | May 2012 54 got a license in Vietnam—a monopolistic license for gaming. And it was at that point that MGM entered the project. It was then 2009 and they were trying to raise the money for the project. Not a good time for anyone to be raising money, particularly for a greenfield project in Vietnam. I came in in April 2010. And since then, the project has been proceeding quite quickly and is expected to open quite soon. When is it scheduled to open now? We are delighted with the progress. I mean, in April 2010, we had an empty piece of beach. You were on site with us today, and we are ten months away from opening. We expect to open the first phase of the project in Q1 of next year. What will that include? The first phase will be the MGM Grand Ho Tram, the first of five resorts, to be managed and branded by MGM. And that will consist of a hotel tower of 541 rooms, 13,600 square meters of gaming space. That gaming consists of 90 tables and 500 electronic gaming machines. It will consist of conference facilities—around 4,000 square meters. Food and beverage, some world class restaurants—French, Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese cuisine. A spa, a swimming pool, beach facilities, cigar bar, teens area. Really, everything that you would expect to see at a destination resort. That will open in Q1 of 2013, and then following that we will build a second tower of 559 rooms, which will bring the total room complement to 1,100. So how much will that phase one cost? Phase one, which will consist of the high rise tower, 541 rooms and the amenities that I described, including the gaming area, has a total cost of approximately US$450 million. One of the major perceived obstacles to the success of the project is actually getting visitors there. People are concerned that it is too far from Ho Chi Minh. What would you say to them? In terms of physical distance, you are talking about 127 km from a major Beachfront appeal—the view from the top of the Ho Tram first phase hotel tower “One of the key differentiating factors of our project is the site itself. It is one of stunning beauty—2.2km of beach. So whereas there are many resorts that are looking to create artificial beaches and artificial wave pools, we actually have the real thing on our doorstep.” INSIGHTS