City of Dreams, Crown’s development project in the Cotai which will include four hotels as well as serviced apartments, and an underwater-themed casino, is expected to be “the tourist destination’s hottest selling point at next year’s travel fair.”

The over USD 2 billion complex going up right across the Venetian Macao Resort Hotel on the Cotai Strip will open in May next year, said May Chow, group director for hotel sales and marketing for Melco Crown Entertainment, at the Taipei International Travel Fair on Saturday, the Taiwan News reported.

The report added that if visitors are talking about Cirque do Soleil’s performance this year at the Venetian, “they will be taken up by the spectacular permanent Dragone show in a state-of-the-art theatre at the City of Dreams” next year. Franco Dragone was behind the Disney Cinema Parade at Disneyland Resort Paris and Celine Dion’s Las Vegas show „A New Day.“

Meanwhile special effects artists are also creating „the bubble,“ a 10-minute first-in-the-world visual extravaganza incorporating projected HD-digital content, a customized musical score, thousands of theatre lights and a variety of sensory effects, the report said.

The “must-see” integrated urban entertainment resort, which is a joint venture of Melco Crown Entertainment and Melco Crown Gaming (Macau) Limited, has been designed to make guests who go in see no need to go out during their stay in Macau, Chow was quoted as saying.

City of Dreams with the Crown Tower, the Hard Rock Hotel, the corporate condominium hotel plus the Twin Towers of the Grand Hyatt are expected to add a total of 2,200 rooms to Macau, according to the report. Chow was also quoted as saying that the hiring and training of the 50,000 personnel needed to run City of Dreams have already begun.

The project will have half a million square feet of casino space, according to Lawrence Teo, director of casino marketing for Melco Crown Gaming (Macau) Ltd, who added there will be 450 gaming tables and 1,700 slot machines.

The project also includes a total of 16,258 sqm of retail space, and over 20 million visitors are expected in the company’s first year of operation, the report added.