A major expansion of the casino floor plus new hotel rooms in US$2.46 billion investment
Genting Malaysia opens its SkyWorlds mega entertainment outdoor theme park tomorrow Tuesday 08 February with a soft format launch to test all the attractions of its RM10.38 billion (US$2.46 billion) Genting Integrated Tourism Plan (GITP), as it is known. Genting Malaysia’s initial investment was MYR5 billion, but in 2016 the company announced doubling its spending plans.
Along with major expansion of the casino floor, there are new hotel rooms, as well as more retail and food & beverage.
However, the US$800 million SkyWorlds park is the crown jewel in the revitalization plan. Spread over 26 acres, the park has nine themed zones. It is ultimately expected to feature 26 attractions, though not all were open during a preview for analysts late last month. The remainder of the rides will be rolled out in stages. The park has a daily capacity of 20,000, though will be restricted to 50 percent of that level initially due to ongoing Covid restrictions in Malaysia.
Genting has estimated that the park will help boost visitation to the resort to 30 million in the longer term, compared with the pre-Covid high of 24 million in 2019. Maybank has said it’s more conservative and expects the park to help attract 26-27 million visitors. According to analysts, one out of every two visitors to the resort will visit the casino.
The park itself is forecast to be loss making due to the high depreciation costs involved, which will run at about MYR330 million per annum, assuming a 10 percent rate. However, the increased visitation will drive further spending in other areas of the property, including gaming.
Nonetheless, Analysts are bullish on the prospects for Genting Malaysia, with the final piece of the GITP plan finally in place. The operator is one of the fortunate few in Asia, with a monopoly in its home market and domestic visitors making up 90 percent of its customer base.
“Until Genting Highlands, there were no other major theme parks in the Klang Valley, despite the fact it’s the wealthiest and most populous region in Malaysia,” Maybank Associate Director Samuel Yin Shao Yang said in an interview with Asia Gaming Brief. “I’ve never expected the theme park to be profit making, largely due to heavy depreciation, but we are quite confident it will bring in many more visitors.”
Although not reliant on overseas markets, the park is expected to pull in international travellers, with most of the signs in the resort in simplified Chinese in anticipation of more visitors from the largest economy in the region.
