The revamped Hotel Central held its official opening ceremony on Monday, with the property’s owner – Simon Sio – saying he expected it to be almost full throughout summer, TDM reports.
Sio bought the badly rundown landmark in 2016, then embarked on a sensitive restoration project that has highlighted various aspects of the iconic hotel’s 95-year history. At yesterday’s ceremony, Sio announced he was now on the look-out for business partners who shared his vision and could develop complementary offerings for tourists.
The hotel launched trial operations back in May and achieved an occupancy rate of more than 90 percent in June, a figure slightly above that of most hotels in Macao. As a two-star property, Hotel Central counts as budget accommodation, which the government has repeatedly said there was plenty of demand for in the SAR.
[See more: The Grande Hotel Macau: Back to life]
Speaking to media outside Hotel Central on Monday, director of the Macao Government Tourism Office, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, reiterated that building cheaper hotels in older areas beyond glitzy Cotai would help boost these neighbourhoods’ economies.
The 11-storey Hotel Central was once the tallest hotel in the Portuguese-speaking world and it also housed Macao’s first elevator. The building contained a casino for several decades, drawing in high-profile guests like the author of the James Bond novels, Ian Fleming (who immortalised the hotel in his 1963 travelogue, Thrilling City).
Sio has said he planned to weave Hotel Central’s history and heritage location, just off Senado Square, into regular promotional activities offering tourists a more in-depth understanding of Macao.
