JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, a world class project by Las Vegas Sands, is ready to open by April 2010 and will be a one stop tourism destination and also a new icon for Singapore.
The statement was declared by Thomas Arasi, the first CEO of Marina Bay Sands, Thursday, in his press conference at Balai Kartini, Jakarta.
"We are doing something never done before by taking all the destinations and bringing them together into one destination," he explained regarding the Marina Bay Sands' principle to be an integrated resort, which means that it endeavors to have everything a tourist would want to do under one roof. In this case that one roof is literally the Sands Skypark crowning the three towers of the project.
Iconic features
The main bulk of the project is in the three hotel towers topped with a connected roof level called the Hotel and Sands Skypark. The surrounding areas will also have other iconic structures, among which are: the casino; theaters which will have
"The Lion King" performance by Disney; two crystal pavillions, which are glass structures built off-shores, inspired by floating icebergs, one of which will be a flag ship store for Louis Vuitton; the waterfront movable platform, able to host an event for 10,000 people and whose surface can be raised by hydraulics into tiers; the Sands Expo and Convention Centre; and the unique structure they expect the most to be iconic is the museum, which is shaped like a palm or a lotus.
"Everyone gets a different impression on this; a palm or a welcoming hand or even a lotus. We're still thinking about its name." Temporarily it's dubbed 'The Welcoming Hand of Singapore'.
Welcome back to Singapore
Arasi expects that the Marina Bay Sands will expand Singapore's tourism capacity and attract even more tourists, especially from Indonesia, since the majority of tourists in the Merlion country are from Indonesia. Around one million Indonesians visit Singapore per year.
"Some groups used to gather in Singapore but they got so big they can't gather there anymore, so now they can come back to Singapore because now we can host them in Marina Bay Sands."
His reason is that the Sands Expo and Convention Centre is able to host up to 11,000 people, and that, "if you sum up all the hotel rooms in Singapore, they won't add up to Marina Bay Sands' rooms," since their hotel boasts over 2,500 rooms."
And naturally premium brand stores and restaurants will flock this tourism spot. The idea is that once people arrive in Marina Bay Sands, which is accessible by the MRT, they won't have to go anywhere far because everything is integrated there.
Arasi also comments that, "the Marina Bay Sands will be a new icon for Singapore. Everyone will identify the Marina Bay Sands with Singapore," and further more in the future he expects that it will be an icon for South East Asia. (C17-09)
