Malaysia’s Resorts World Genting is home once again to the “world’s largest hotel” as judged by the Guinness Book of World Records.
An ongoing expansion of the Genting Highlands mountaintop leisure complex outside Kuala Lumpur has added some 1,200-plus rooms to its First World Hotel, bringing the three-star property’s total to 7,351 and recapturing the title, confirmed by Guinness, according to an announcement by Resorts World Genting.
First World had held the title for seven years, from 2006 to 2013, when it housed as many as 6,116 rooms, the operator said.
“We are very pleased to once again receive this recognition,” said RWG Senior Vice President Edward Holloway. “The hotel has received over 35.5 million guests over the nine years since its first record in 2006.”
Resorts World Genting is the site of the only legal casino in Malaysia and one of the oldest and largest casinos in Asia. The complex is currently being expanded to the tune of 1 billion Malaysian ringgits (US$240 million), with more hotels, retail and restaurants and a movie industry-based theme park called Twentieth Century Fox World.
Genting Highlands complex is operated by Genting Malaysia, a Kuala Lumpur-listed subsidiary of Malaysia-based resort conglomerate Genting Group, whose holdings through Genting Malaysia and other listed subsidiaries include Singapore’s Resorts World Sentosa, Resorts World Manila, Resorts World New York City, Resorts World Bimini in the Bahamas, casinos in Great Britain and gaming resorts under development in Manila, on Jeju island in South Korea and in Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong-listed subsidiary of Malaysian gaming giant Genting has posted staggering profits for the first half of 2015. The unit posted returns of $2.16 billion, an increase of 900 percent over the same period in 2014.
The results are linked to Genting’s shift to the cruise sector, according to reports. Though cruise occupancy was just 69 percent, down from 74 percent in the first half of 2014, other cruise-related revenues grew 5.7 percent to $32.7 million. The company acquired U.S.-based Crystal Cruises for $550 million in March.
Genting Hong Kong Chairman and CEO Lim Kok Toy said the profits “would enable the company to focus on and put more resources to expand its cruise and cruise-related businesses and to redeploy the cash proceeded flexibly to further explore and fund other investments and business opportunities as they may arise.”
