Travellers International Hotel Group Inc. said Friday it may move the opening of its second integrated resort and gaming facility in the Philippines amid rising competition.
Travellers president Kingson said the opening of the $1.1-billion West Side City Resorts World in Pagcor Entertainment City complex in Parañaque might be moved to 2020 or 2021, instead of the original schedule of 2018.
Two casinos are already operating within Entertainment City, including Solaire Resorts & Casino of Bloomberry Resorts Corp. and City of Dreams Manila of Melco Crown group.
A third gaming and resort complex owned by Japanese billionaire Kazuo Okada is expected to open in Entertainment City before the end of the year, which would likely tighten competition in the area.
Macau, the first gaming jurisdiction in Asia, faces tough competition from other countries which decided to open their own gaming destinations, including Singapore, the Philippines and South Korea.
Macau, a Chinese special autonomous region, saw gaming revenues fall 34 percent to $28.9 billion in 2015 from a year ago, after China launched an anti-corruption campaign.
Travellers International, a joint venture of Alliance Global Group Inc. and Genting of Malaysia, already operates Resorts World Manila in Pasay City and is one of the four holders of gaming licenses in Entertainment City.
Sian said last week the company was reviewing plans for West Side City to make it unique compared to the competition and its own Resorts World Manila.
“We’re carefully studying the master plan. We want to tweak it so that we offer something that is quite unique, so we don’t repeat the same offering,” said Sian.
Travellers is supposed to be the fourth and last company to build integrated gaming and entrainment facility in Entertainment City.
It is also spending P10 billion this year to expand Resorts World Manila. It would add three more hotels under phase three of the project, including Hilton Hotel Manila, the Sheraton Manila Hotel and Maxims Hotel’s new wing.
The company earlier budgeted $400 million to $450 million for phase 3.
Sian said the company also planned to start the development of phase 4 in 2017.
Phase 4 would involve the construction at least 1,000 hotel rooms and 20,000 square meters of retail space.
Sian said once all phases were completed, Resorts World would have over 5,000 hotel rooms and 40,000 square meters of retail space.