Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JUL 2021年7月 亞博匯 56 JAPAN Image courtesy of Huis Ten Bosch 圖片由豪斯登堡提供。 T he history of Huis Ten Bosch (HTB) is one of drama. In 1992, a theme park called Holland Village was born in the city of Sasebo. It is a strikingly accurate replica of its namesake, Paleis Huis ten Bosch, one of the residences that Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands called home, and the entire theme park surrounding it was built to resemble a European townscape. The development area is 152 hectares, making it one-and-a-half times bigger than Tokyo Disney Resort, which includes Disneyland and Disney Sea, and therefore the largest theme park in Japan. Total investment is said to be upward of JPY 200 billion (US$1.8 billion) and the Comprehensive Resort Areas Development Law, enacted in 1987, applies to it. The Resort Law states that resort facilities developed based on a plan drafted by the prefecture and approved by the national government are eligible for taxation support and preferential treatment for things like financing from government financial institutions. Nagasaki prefecture also developed HTB among others as part of the “Nagasaki Exotic Resort Concept”. This was during the time of Japan’s bubble economy when large-scale resorts were popping up everywhere, but after the bubble burst they filed for bankruptcy, one after another. The same fate may well await HTB. In 1996 the resort boasted 3.8 million visitors, never reaching