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Macao’s hotel construction knows no bounds. The former Portuguese enclave, whose size varies depending on the latest land reclamation project (but which is around 32 sq km) had a staggering 37,634 hotel rooms at the end of 2016 spread over 113 properties. A year earlier, there were 32,608.

Most of the mega development is on the Cotai Strip, the 5.25 sq km piece of reclaimed land wedged between Coloane and Taipa islands, although a medium sized hotel, the Harbourview, opened on Fisherman’s Wharf Macao.

Things have slowed down slightly this year, with the exception of 223-room Monte Carlo-styled Legend Palace Hotel which opened in February also at Fisherman’s Wharf, a theme park on the Macao Peninsula currently undergoing revitalisation.

Similarly, huge resorts are planned for the next two years, with the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) tipping they’ll be in excess of 50,000 hotel rooms by late 2018. They include the Louis XIII, simply called The 13, owned by flamboyant entrepreneur Stephen Hung; the MGM Cotai to be shaped like a series of glittering jewellery boxes; the 40-storey Morpheus owned by the City of Dreams (whose investors include James Packer) and the Lisboa Palace — all based at Cotai. The other contender, Macao Roosevelt, diminutive by comparison with just 373 rooms will have a Hollywood design with a “retro twist” and emulate its Los Angeles namesake. The most outlandish, the 13, will feature 200 villas each with a private elevator and many with Roman baths, rumoured to cost $US7m each to build. A fleet of 30 red Rolls Royce Phantoms will ferry guests around.

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