runarchery01   Album Posted Aug.21st, 2024, viewed 41 times

Malaysia Hilltop Casino Receives Facelift

"It's not just a casino," said Anthony Yeo, Genting's senior vice president of communications. "It's just one of your choices here."

Yeo said Genting has embarked on a diversification plan to remain competitive.

"We are so fiercely competing with other casinos around the world that we have to be aggressive and aggressive in differentiating and keeping pace with the times," he said.

"We need to be able to provide different forms of entertainment that Las Vegas or even larger casinos in Macau don't have," he added.

With this strategy, Genting aims to meet the needs of playmakers as well as gamblers, Yeo said.

The 45-minute journey from Kuala Lumpur takes visitors to the halfway point of the hill, where they arrive on one of Asia's longest cable car lines, carrying thousands of passengers daily through the 3.38-kilometer dense rainforest to the summit.


While the core of Genting's revenue comes from casinos, officials said most of the 15 million visitors on average each year come to avoid rides, live entertainment or the tropical heat of the lowlands.

One of the latest additions and most popular additions to indoor theme parks is Asia's first sky venture ride, which simulates skydiving inside an enclosed cylindrical capsule that produces winds over 190 km/h.

Costing 100 million ringgit (roughly R168 million) in construction, the sprawling five-hectare outdoor theme park offers head-raising rides for adrenaline junkies, with rollercoasters that leave little imagination under names such as "Corkscrew" and "Turbo Drop."

For those who want a quieter form of entertainment, live performances are available almost every night.

The 6,000-seat Arena of Stars has set the stage for various performers, including singer Sir Cliff Richard, pop group Westlife, and Hong Kong performers Andy Lau and Aaron Kw.

Musical celebrations, including a West End performance of London's Lady Salsa, as well as Broadway's "Annie," also decorated the stage.

Genting's rebranding comes at a crucial time when global players in the casino and gaming industries are becoming more glamorous, bigger and, more importantly, closer to home.

The casino in nearby Singapore and the recent opening of Disneyland in Hong Kong will definitely offer fierce competition. This is because most of Genting's visitors were Singaporean and Chinese.

In 2004, it recorded 17.4 million visitors, not including those who took day trips.

Of the 537,000 Chinese tourists who visited Malaysia that year, 400,000 chose to spend the majority of their trips in Genting, officials said.

Genting officials have expressed optimism about maintaining attraction to tourists and dismissing the upcoming competition, a feat achieved so far along with a rise in Middle Eastern tourists in recent years.

"The place is very beautiful, and I'm very happy that we decided to come here," said 42-year-old Saudi Karima Moehammad.

Mr. Moehammad, who arrived with his husband and two daughters, said he didn't mind that the resort had one of the largest casinos in the area.

"I don't care because I have so much else to do," she said, "I didn't even notice the casino."

Another visitor, Dirk Cornelius Uys of South Africa, made an hour-long trip to a hilltop resort to enjoy late-night coffee with friends.

"It's worth the trip," said the 31-year-old engineer. "You don't get many other places where you can sip your coffee on a hilltop and then drive back down to the comforts of your bed the same day." - Sapa-dpa 동행복권파워볼