Red tape keeps Macau hotels closed

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Fingers are pointed in all directions within the Macau government about the failure to get final approvals for two hotels to open.

The Grand Lisboa and the Sofitel Macau, part of the Ponte 16 casino resort, have been ready to go for months but lack the government’s OK. The director of the Macau Government Tourist Office, João Manuel Costa Antunes, said there are many government agencies involved, so his department can’t be held responsible. Before approving a hotel for operation, it needed the OK from Health Department, the Lands, Public Works and Transport Bureau and the Fire Department.

Ao Man Long, the former transport and public works secretary, was sentenced to 27 years jail in January for accepting millions of dollars in bribes and laundering money. A shakeup in the deparment is being blamed for at least part of the delay.

Both hotels expect to open sometime in August.

The next hotel scheduled to open is the Four Seasons Hotel on the Cotai Strip, part of the Venetian development.