China Gamblers Lured From Macau Seen Reviving Queensland
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Sandwiched by forested hills and the Great Barrier Reef, the town of Cairns and its surrounding region are enduring a tourist slump. More than a third of the 3,892 hotel rooms in the tropical Australian getaway were empty in the three months through June.
Hong Kong investor Tony Fung has plans to reverse that with a A$4.2 billion ($4 billion) casino resort, complete with artificial lagoon, 18-hole golf course and 25,000-seat arena. The complex will almost double the number of hotel rooms in a region where oversupply has fueled an 18 percent slump in overnight rates since 2007.