Melco Resorts and John Keells Holdings (JKH) opened Phase 1 of a new resort complex in Sri Lanka. Phase 2 will add a casino and additional non-gaming amenities.
On 15 October, Cinnamon Life at City of Dreams Sri Lanka opened in the capital of Colombo. The 687-room hotel constitutes Phase 1 of a larger $1.2bn (£921.7m/€1.107bn) integrated resort (IR).
Melco also operates IRs in Macau, the Philippines and Cyprus, all under the City of Dreams brand.
The Sri Lanka IR offers the largest conference centre in the port city, accommodating up to 5,000 visitors. Phase 2 will include a Melco-run casino, a shopping district and exclusive Nuwa-branded hotel. All are scheduled to open in mid-2025.
A “small wager” for Melco
In April, Melco announced it had won a 20-year gaming licence from the Sri Lankan government. In return, it “will fit out and operate the gaming area… and manage the top five floors of the hotel under [Melco’s] Nuwa brand of ultra high-end luxury rooms.”
Melco is investing approximately $125m to develop the gaming space. It is a “small wager” with the promise of strong returns, says chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho. When fully operational, Ho projects the casino will generate gross gaming revenue (GGR) of $250m per year.
Ho is confident City of Dreams Sri Lanka will boost tourism to the area. “We expect to make a significant and positive impact on the local community and economy,” he said in a statement. “We believe Sri Lanka has immense potential and this opportunity complements our existing portfolio of properties.”
Ho added that the resort could expand based on demand.
Comparable to Singapore IRs
JKH chairman and CEO Krishan Balendra called City of Dreams “an iconic development” that could be a “transformative development in South Asia and be a catalyst in creating tourism demand, foreign exchange earnings for Sri Lanka and generating employment”. He expects it to have the same positive impact on Colombo as Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa had in Singapore.
The opening of those IRs in 2010 “resulted in an immediate surge in tourist arrivals to Singapore”, he noted. “The impact in other Asian cities like Manila, where similar integrated resorts have been opened, has been positive.”
