Integrated resorts urged to further diversify offers

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) has urged integrated resorts to offer more non-gaming attractions including restaurants and retail establishments to further drive growth in local tourism.

Ma. Vina Claudette Oca, assistant vice president for gaming licensing and development department at Pagcor, said in a statement that casinos were but a small part of the attractions offered by integrated resorts.

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“In fact, they are only allowed to allocate 7.5 percent of their facility’s total floor area to gaming. The rest of the floor area is allocated for non-gaming facilities such as hotel rooms, retail areas, dining and other attractions,” Oca said.

Pagcor is pushing for the further development of integrated resorts due to their high employment numbers.

High rollers

Existing integrated gaming resorts that include Solaire Resort, City of Dreams and Newport World Resorts employ 20,000 Filipinos then 80 percent of their earnings from regulated gaming go to the government to fund various projects, according to Oca. They have become a significant tourism draw, with high rollers mainly coming from Asia.

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In total, visitor arrivals as of May totaled 2.56 million, up by 14 percent compared to 2.25 million seen in the same period last year, according to data from the Department of Tourism. INQ