Hippie Town Seen as New Macau With World’s Biggest Hotel
This article is for subscribers only.
Once a stop on the hippie trail, Cairns is now a haven for backpackers and divers. By 2019, Tony Fung predicts it’ll be a gambling destination to rival Macau.
The Hong Kong property developer last week won early-stage government backing for plans to build an A$8.15 billion ($7.6 billion) casino resort on a former sugarcane farm north of the town. With targeted first-stage completion in late 2018 and 7,500 hotel rooms around an artificial lagoon, 18-hole golf course and water park, it’ll nearly triple the region’s hotel accommodations and be bigger than Singapore’s two casino resorts put together.