Inside Asian Gaming

APRIL 2018 INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 35 2013, President Xi proposed a new “21st century Maritime Silk Road” in his speech at the Indonesian Parliament during his state visit to the country. The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st century Maritime Silk Road Initiative, also known as the One Belt and One Road Initiative, has since become one of China’s most profound state development strategies that focuses on connectivity and cooperation in order to realize massive trade potential and boost economic development among countries through Central Asia to the Middle East, as well as those along the maritime route through Southeast Asia, the Persian Gulf and the Horn of Africa. At a more personal level, the initiative is also an integral part of President Xi’s efforts on his own blueprint for China’s “great rejuvenation” in the new century. Countries along the Belt and Road have their own resource advantages with unique natural, cultural and ethnic elements. When offered together with gaming and leisure facilities, they will be able to compose a strongly exotic attraction factor. BENEFITS TO THE GAMING INDUSTRY One of the initiative’s primary priorities is to expand the scale of tourism and to enhance its cooperation/interaction with other relevant industries. As witnessed and still ongoing worldwide, the gaming industry has had a wide variety of effects on boosting tourism by acting as a key catalyst for marketing purposes, creating new attraction factors, providing world-class leisure and entertainment facilities and enhancing the quality of hospitality services as well as guest experience. The availability of gaming facilities has not only fueled the tourism sector to grow COLUMNISTS Economic Belt Maritime Road