Hoiana, a Vietnam casino resort that opened in 2020, will undergo an expansion starting this year. Hoiana is a project of privately-held Macau junket investor Suncity Group, which said in a press release that it would target “tourists from Southeast Asia as its main source market in the future.”
“The first phase of Hoiana covers an area of over 165 hectares (408 acres), with the second phase project commencing in 2021,” said Suncity Group in its January 5 announcement.
“Suncity Group believes that Hoiana will bring significant revenue and sustainable development prospects, and is a demonstration of its determination to gradually evolve into an integrated resort operator and actively expand its resort management business.”
According to GGRAsia, starting in March the organization of junket trips for overseas gambling by Chinese will be considered a crime.
In the same release, Suncity said its brand is “expanding into East Asia to further target Japanese and Korean travelers,” with plans to develop non-gaming resorts “in Miyako Island, Okinawa and Niseko in Hokkaido in Japan, with construction to begin in 2021.”
The brand also reiterated that what it termed the “Westside City integrated resort” at Entertainment City in Manila, in the Philippines, was “set to open its doors before 2023”. The Suncity brand has an investment in that scheme, via Suncity Group Holdings’ interest in Suntrust Home Developers Inc.
Suncity Group stated in its Tuesday update that Tigre de Cristal, a Russian casino resort in which Suncity Group Holdings has an interest, would “focus on developing local Russian clientele, while introducing Japanese and Korean travelers to the resort as the target source market”. Suncity Group Holdings is the controlling shareholder in that resort’s promoter, Hong Kong-listed Summit Ascent Holdings Ltd.
Phase two of Tigre de Cristal would “commence in 2021, doubling the number of entertainment facilities as well as tripling the number of guest rooms,” noted the release.
According to Inside Asian Gaming, the Vietnamese government is increasingly interested in the growth of tourism, and more specifically the development of high-quality integrated resorts with casinos.
In March 2017, the government issued Decree 03/2017, which included two key additions to Vietnam’s casino law. The first was to slash the minimum investment requirement for foreign companies to develop a casino resort from US$4 billion to US$2 billion.
Second was a long-awaited three-year pilot scheme to allow Vietnamese locals to gamble in three casinos. Only one, the unfortunately named Corona Casino on Phu Quoc Island, has opened. Two projects are still in development: KN Paradise Cam Ranh Integrated Resort in Vietnam’s Khanh Hoa Province, and another in the Van Don Special Economic Zone in Quang Ninh Province.
