Sun International is reported to be among six bidders for a licence to build and run a casino resort in Cyprus.
Three firms would proceed to the second round of bidding once the expression-of-interest period ended on December 18, Tourism Minister Georgios Lakkotrypis said. According to Business Day Live, reports have cited Malaysia’s Genting, Florida-based Hard Rock International, Cambodia’s NagaCorp and France’s Bouygues as the other bidders.
"We aim to grant the licence by mid-2016 and it will come into effect from day one so the winning company will have every incentive to move quickly," Lakkotrypis said on November 18.
Companies would be notified of the results of the expression-of-interest phase 45 days after the deadline. The licence, for 30 years, 15 exclusive, also covers a "holistic" integrated type of resort that would be the first of its kind in Europe. "If market conditions show after 15 years there could be room for more such resorts, then, yes, we could grant more licences," the Minister mentioned.
The casino resort would target visitors from within a four-hour flight radius and "Russians are certainly one of the target markets", Lakkotrypis said. The number of Russian visitors in Cyprus, which had been rising over the past few years, has dropped this year. "We’re trying to limit that decline to 20%," he said.
Russian visitor numbers fell 17% in the first 10 months of the year before declining to more than 19% in the year to date following the October 31 downing of a Russian airliner over Egypt that killed 224 people, Lakkotrypis said, and continued, "We expect the number of Britons coming to Cyprus in 2015 to hit at least the 1-million mark."
Three firms would proceed to the second round of bidding once the expression-of-interest period ended on December 18, Tourism Minister Georgios Lakkotrypis said. According to Business Day Live, reports have cited Malaysia’s Genting, Florida-based Hard Rock International, Cambodia’s NagaCorp and France’s Bouygues as the other bidders.
"We aim to grant the licence by mid-2016 and it will come into effect from day one so the winning company will have every incentive to move quickly," Lakkotrypis said on November 18.
Companies would be notified of the results of the expression-of-interest phase 45 days after the deadline. The licence, for 30 years, 15 exclusive, also covers a "holistic" integrated type of resort that would be the first of its kind in Europe. "If market conditions show after 15 years there could be room for more such resorts, then, yes, we could grant more licences," the Minister mentioned.
The casino resort would target visitors from within a four-hour flight radius and "Russians are certainly one of the target markets", Lakkotrypis said. The number of Russian visitors in Cyprus, which had been rising over the past few years, has dropped this year. "We’re trying to limit that decline to 20%," he said.
Russian visitor numbers fell 17% in the first 10 months of the year before declining to more than 19% in the year to date following the October 31 downing of a Russian airliner over Egypt that killed 224 people, Lakkotrypis said, and continued, "We expect the number of Britons coming to Cyprus in 2015 to hit at least the 1-million mark."