Macau, the former Portuguese colony off the coast of Hong Kong, has been officially recognised for having the largest number of five-star properties of any destination in the world.
Forbes Travel Guide, the long established creator of five-star ratings, has added four Macau restaurants and a major international hotel – Conrad Macao – to its 2015 list.
General manager of the Macau Government Tourist Office Australia and New Zealand Helen Wong said, “These are very exciting results for Macau. These prestigious ratings showcase to the world the first class quality of Macau’s hotels, restaurants and luxury day spas.
“The fact the team of professional inspectors from Forbes Travel Guide rated the properties so highly speaks volumes for Macau as a genuine global centre,” said Wong.
This latest news comes hot on the heels of travel publication Lonely Planet’s listing of Macau as a Top 10 Region to visit in 2015.
The four restaurants (hotel in brackets) to gain a recent five-star rating were Belon (Banyan Tree), IlTeatro (Wynn Macau), Tenmasa (Altira Macau) and Vida Rica (Mandarin Oriental).
They joined Auroa (Altira Macau), Golden Flower at Encore Macau, Jade Dragon (Crown Towers), The Tasting Room (Crown Towers) and Wing Lei (Wynn Macau), boosting the number to nine.
Macau also has two new international hotels – Crowne Plaza and Harbourview Hotel – and an all-you-can-eat Tromba Rija Portuguese restaurant, housed in the ground level of the 338 metre-high Macau Tower.
By the end of 2015, the Cotai area will have a $US3.2 billion Hollywood-inspired Studio City, Galaxy Macau will be extended to include three new international hotels – a 250-room all-suite Ritz-Carlton and Asia’s largest JW Marriott with over 1000 rooms and Broadway Hotel with a further 320 rooms – and a new street, named Broadway, will open complete with hawker style stores, bars and restaurants, live entertainment and world class performances inside a 3000-seat Broadway Theatre.
Also due to open at the end of the year is the Parisian which will feature a smaller version of the Eiffel Tower, complete with observation deck and 200-seat restaurant.
With such exciting additions, it’s significant that the giant guide book publisher Lonely Planet would rank Macau among the Top 10 regions in the world to explore in 2015.
Look beyond 2015, and Macau can prepare for more change – with tens of thousands of additional hotel rooms to accommodate the growing leisure, business and MICE markets.
As construction continues on the 29.5km Hong Kong-Zuhai-Macau Bridge, due to open at the end of 2016, ground has been broken in a number of other hot spots on the Cotai Strip, reclaimed land linking the islands of Taipa and Coloane and home to the City of Dreams, Sands (The Venetian included) and the Galaxy.
MGM is celebrating a new and exciting chapter in the company’s history with the breaking of ground on yet another Cotai project – a contemporary precinct which will include 1600 hotel rooms. It is expected to open in early to mid-2016.
Wynn Resorts has a 1700-room entertainment and hotel complex, also to open in 2016.
A French Versailles-style Lisboa Palace, a project valued in excess of $AUD4.5 billion complete with three hotels including a Palazzo Versace and another designed by Karl Lagerfeld, is expected to be completed in 2017.
