Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JUL 2022年7月 亞博匯 36 COVER STORY Disney Resort and Universal Studios Florida and ranking eighth globally according to the 2020 TEA/AECOM Theme and Museum Index. Joining Chimelong Ocean Kingdom later this year will be a new theme park, Chimelong Marine Science Park, featuring the world’s largest marine science museum and a killer whale display pool, while work is underway on two animal safari theme parks, one of them being Hengqin Chimelong Animal Kingdom. Described as the world’s largest wild animal kingdom, it will be divided into separate day and night sections. Acablecarattractionrunning up Big Hengqin Mountain from Ocean Kingdom is expected to open before the end of this year, offering expansive views across Hengqin and as far as Macau’s Cotai Strip. Of course, as it stands, none of this is of any particular benefit to Macau. “The issue they’ve got at the moment is that even if the pandemic border restrictions are removed tomorrow, visitors from mainland China who want to go to Chimelong can easily do so – and in big numbers – but most of those people cannot get entry permits into Macau, even post-pandemic,” explains Matthew Ossolinski, CEO of GW Investment Consulting, which provides advisory and business brokering services to integrated resort operators and institutional investors on Hengqin. “Until they can get permits to go back and forth freely, the two tourism markets will not be integrated. That’s a policy issue that will take a few years and it won’t happen overnight.” Development of the infrastructure to support such future integration of Hengqin and Macau is already well underway, however. Opened in 2020, Hengqin Port contains the second largest underground train station in China, plugging Macau and Hengqin into China’s high speed rail network with a capacity of 80 million passengers per The new Hengqin Port opened in 2020. 新橫琴口岸於2020年正式啟用。