With a billions dollar renovation, a massive integrated resort on a mountainside receives a breath of fresh air.
Visitors may ascend 1,865 meters (6,118 feet) into the clouds at Resorts World Genting, which has an average temperature of 17 degrees Celsius (62 degrees Fahrenheit), 10 degrees lower than Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, which is located 58 kilometers (36 miles) to the south.
In addition to transporting visitors into the history, present, and future of Asia’s first, largest, and most distinctive integrated resort, RW Genting is situated among a 130-million-year-old rain forest that has remained almost intact.
Steve Karoul, president and CEO of Euro-Asia Consulting, describes Resorts World Genting as a very alluring destination resort with a sizable casino.
The total developed area of RW Genting, which is situated atop Mount Ulu Kali, exceeds 13 million square feet (1.2 million square meters). Malaysia’s only casino floors span more than a million square feet and include seven hotels and 10,500 guest rooms ranging from sly to elegant. There are two cable car systems, hundreds of restaurant and beverage options, a convention center, theme parks, a 5,000-seat arena, and even more retail space.
Due to regular mountain rains, the entire hilltop complex may be accessed inside.
The IR targets both local and foreign gamers, as well as the 33 million Muslims who are prohibited from gaming in Malaysia.
During breakfast in the luxurious Crockfords, the IR’s newest hotel, Lee Thiam Kit, president and COO of RW Genting, states, “We try to position our products to appeal to all segments of the society, all price segments.” It was opened in 2017 as part of a multibillion-dollar renovation that lasted ten years.
The founder
Invoking business grandfather Lim Goh Tong, who started building a road up the mountain from the town of Genting Sempeh in 1965, Lee is asked to evaluate the present status of the IR.
Since the founder’s son, Lim Kok Thay, is the chairman and CEO of Genting Berhad, the conglomerate’s parent company that is listed on the KL Stock Exchange, there is no escape history at RW Genting.
In addition to two beach resorts in Malaysia, RW Genting’s corporate parent, Genting Malaysia, which is listed on the KL exchange, has assets in the Bahamas, Egypt, New York, Florida, and the United Kingdom. Resorts World Sentosa is run by Genting Singapore, a Singapore-listed company. Genting Berhad owns Resorts World Las Vegas as well as its energy and plantation divisions.
Gohtong Jaya township is located halfway up the mountain along the four-lane highway that was created as a result of Lim Goh Tong’s achievement. We can discover Lim Goh Tong Memorial Hall, which honors his life, just beyond the IR entry gate. He was buried here in 2007 at the age of 89. Genting has observed Founder’s Day on February 28 every year since the centennial of Lim Goh Tong’s birth in 2018.
A monument of Lim Goh Tong stands higher on the hill, overlooking the Chin Swee Caves Temple, which is home to a god from his native Anxi in the province of Fujian, China.
Every night, a portion of SkyWorlds’ theme park turns into Gohtong Way on the mountaintop, complete with street cuisine and stargazing fountain performances.
The original Genting Casino transports guests back to the IR’s 1971 debut, even beyond the founder. The rotunda in the middle of the main floor is reminiscent of the birdcage from the Casino Lisboa in Macau.
When SkyWorlds Hotel first opened, it was known as Highlands Hotel and had cramped, airless rooms. It still has sharp edges and ceiling fans after its most recent renovation in 2017. Funky phones, stick figures painted in black on white walls, kid-sized workstations and play areas, and bunk beds for bigger families are among the accommodations.
Every guest room at RW Genting is tastefully decorated, cozy, and useful, regardless of price range.
Resorts world las vegas forms part of genting’s resorts empire
Formerly the highlands hotel, genting skyworlds hotel underwent renovations in 2017
Semi-Fox
The hotel is located right outside the SkyWorld theme park. When Disney purchased Fox’s entertainment businesses in 2017, the park, which was originally scheduled to open in 2018 in collaboration with Fox Studios, fell into legal chaos.
The park turned into a new battleground in the ongoing dispute with Disney for the expansion of gambling to Genting’s waterfront properties in Miami. After the park problem was resolved in 2019, development was postponed due to COVID-19.
The two dozen attractions of SkyWorlds, which span 26 acres (10.5 hectares) and opened in February 2022, include Fox properties Ice Age, Night at the Museum, Rio, Planet of the Apes, Robots, Epic, and Independence Day. In the event of rain, SkyWorld provides complimentary tickets for a follow-up visit.
The recently finished Genting Integrated Tourism Plan, which was unveiled in 2013 at MYR5 billion (US$1.55 billion at the time) then doubled in 2016, has SkyWorlds as its centerpiece. The project is worth MYR10 billion (US$2.1 billion).
The Skytropolis indoor theme park was also added by GITP during a ten-year period. Forty percent of all expenditures went to the two parks.
Additional GITP enhancements include the construction of Crockfords and a third tower for the First World Hotel, which is once again the largest in the world with 7,347 rooms, the renovation of other hotels, the addition of a second cable car system from mid-hill to the mountaintop, and improvements to the retail districts Sky Avenue and Genting Highlands Premium Outlets.
Amidst upscale shops and a variety of food and beverage options, Sky Avenue’s center plaza is a bustling Sunday afternoon with multi-story screens displaying in-house cartoons. It’s a healthy indoor version of the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas, with additional video screens atop nearby Skytropolis.
RW Genting’s current image was crafted by GITP with the goal of staying up with regional rivals and increasing its popularity, especially among Muslims in Malaysia. According to Lee, “the majority was spent on non-gaming.” The non-gaming sector is growing at a faster rate. There are now greater [non-gaming] rewards with investment.
Sky high gaming
According to Genting, SkyCasino, which opened in 2017, is similar to Marina Bay Sands’ gaming floor. The casino has a balcony level, high ceilings, lights, and surveillance trees over the gambling pits. Sky is home to 1,300 electronic gaming terminals (including tablets that can access ETG nodes across the resort), 2,000 slots, and 70% of the 600 gaming tables. This is around 75% of the capability prior to COVID-19.
The Genting 2 casino’s closing close to the original is the cause of the deficit. Although management has no intentions to increase gaming area, that floor may reopen if demand and a competitive labor market allow.
Baccarat, roulette, and sic bo are popular games where players wager on three-dice totals and combinations. While premium areas include blackjack and house-versus-player poker games, mass levels feature pontoons. Ten tables make up Sky’s Texas Hold’em section, which may be expanded for tournaments. Automated games and live dealers are held in stadium clusters with hundreds of terminals.
The minimum stakes for card games are MYR100, MYR50 for roulette, and MYR10, or around US$2, for sic bo. Squeeze baccarat on the main level costs MYR 300. ETG minimums start at only MYR 10.
RW Genting started using e-wallets instead of ticket in-ticket out (TITO) in 2020. White label cards are accessible for non-members, and cards are required for any machine play. Additionally, member cards may be used to pay for shopping and table games at the resort.
Machine payments can only be made with a card, yet tables and machines still take cash as we move toward cashless transactions. Ewallet money may be deposited and withdrawn by players from cages or terminals located throughout the casino floor.
Player status is determined by cards; 500 Genting points correspond to MYR50,000 spent, which is the VIP threshold. VIPs occupy about 30% of the tables.
With upscale spaces above, management hopes to direct large games to Sky’s ground and balcony levels. Via its own Crockford’s Platinum Club, the five-star, globally renowned Crockfords hotel has access to Sky’s exclusive neighborhood.
At the Genting Casino end of the resort, however, private spaces are where the majority of premium play takes place. Here, casino customers are mostly accommodated in upscale, competitively priced lodging at the Genting Grand and Highlands hotels. There are no special rooms for junkets, which are mostly from Southeast Asia. There are four helipads available for VVIPs to use.
Genting’s Crockfords brand is showcased on the site
Covid recovery
Samuel Yin Shao Yang, a Maybank analyst, projects RW Genting’s GGR to reach MYR7.2 billion in 2024 from MYR6.2 billion (US$1.3 billion) this year.
RW Genting’s first half visitation of 11.8 million, or 84% of 2019, is consistent with GGR of 86% of 2019. The first nine months of this year saw Malaysia’s leisure and hospitality revenue (Genting does not fully break out statistics by property) reach 85% of 2019 with EBITDA at 94%, helped by 33% margins, which is three percentage points higher than 2019. Compared to 95% in 2019, hotel occupancy is 96%.
“We’re 90%-95% of pre-pandemic even without the full resumption of China tourists,” adds Lee, who started his career in investment banking.
In spite of China’s present difficulties, “We can’t ignore this market in the long run,” Lee argues. We saw certain shifts in the characteristics of Chinese tourists. Economy excursions used to be very popular. The upper end, however, will remain. Not too concerned about that.
However, China has never been essential to RW Genting’s success. “Our top five international markets are Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, China, and India,” Lee states. According to sources, 85% of tourists travel to Malaysia and Singapore, which is four and a half hours away.
According to managing partner Shaun McCamley of Euro Pacific Asia Consulting, “the property has always been pitched at the Malaysian and Singapore markets.” “Given access to such a sizable and encouraging local market, I can see why that’s where the focus is.”
The US$7 billion expansion of Singapore’s two IRs doesn’t worry Lee. People were concerned about us when Macau first opened, if you look into our history. People were concerned about us when Singapore opened. The market is actually expanding and sufficiently large.
Lee mentions the 16,000 workers at RW Genting and the roughly 50,000 jobs the IR supports while discussing the possibility of a gaming ban in Malaysia, where Islam is the state religion. We have communicated with many governments. They look for ways to get into the IR industry and reap the financial rewards. One institution can do that, according to our experience. In 2022, Genting Malaysia also paid MYR325 million in taxes.
You call this a monopoly?
Regarding the potential for a local rival to break up its monopoly in Malaysia, Lee responds, “We’re not really a monopoly.” In the gambling industry, Singapore and Macau compete with us. We compete with all of the town’s shopping centers in terms of lifestyle.
“The casino is undoubtedly a significant component of the business, but we see a lot of growth coming from the lifestyle part of the business,” Lee says of the future.
“We see a huge opportunity for growth when we consider that the majority of the population is Muslim.”
“There is some softness in the [middle] 40% and [bottom] 40% of the economy after the pandemic,” he continues. However, that doesn’t alter the long-term trend of people embracing lifestyle goods.
Lee quotes Genting Highlands Premium Outlets spending figures for Malay Muslims. According to Lee, “[It] gives us a lot of confidence and conviction in our path.”
The outlet center, which Genting refers to as mid-hill, has over 125 name-brand stores. With Chin Swee Caves Temple and Hilltop stations above, it is the cable car’s lower terminus. Parking and transportation are available. Resorts World Awana is located underneath it, accessible via shuttle bus but not easily accessible on foot. The only hotel in the IR located below the summit is this one.
Green makeover
Awana, which opened in 1984, is a lonesome place in the woods. It is well-liked for business gatherings, parties, and festivities because it doesn’t provide gaming and exclusively offers halal cuisine. However, more is possible.
Lee claims that Awana is having a facelift. “With farms available for use on the property and hiking trails, we’re positioning it as an ecotourism product.” Adding solar panels and achieving globally recognized green certification are examples of sustainability measures.
Beginning in February, rooms from the original hotel block in Awana will be accessible, ultimately increasing the number of keys to 400.
A decades-old staff hostel is giving rise to Mystical Orchid Forest. Alongside a greenhouse and artificial lake, it repurposes existing buildings and materials for food and beverage establishments and event space. The third quarter of next year is when completion is expected to occur.
Children of all ages may gather honey from stingless bee colonies in sunflower and rose gardens, which are additional floral crafts. The hot pot restaurant in Awana grows its own fresh greens for its patrons to order.
The back nine holes of the Awana golf course are now open for play and will be rebuilt when the front nine are completed. Early 2025 is the anticipated completion date.
The launch of Awana Village, which has a golf clubhouse and non-halal dining options apart from the hotel, may fall within that time frame. To take use of Awana’s natural environment, there is interest in collaborating with Chinese tourism destinations.
Awana Ayu, the hotel’s poolside bar and “tropical lifestyle dining,” is a member of the Zouk Group. The RW Genting hilltop is home to six nightlife ideas from the Singapore nightclub brand.
In 2015, Zouk was purchased by Genting Hong Kong, which also owns Genting’s cruise lines and a joint venture interest in Resorts World Manila (formerly Newport World Resorts). In 2020, when Genting HK filed for bankruptcy, it sold Zouk to a business led by Lim Keong Hui, who is currently Zouk’s executive chairman, for US$10.2 million.
Lim, the son of Lim Kok Thay and the grandson of Lim Goh Tong, is the executive director and deputy CEO of Genting Malaysia and Genting Berhad. Welcome to RW Genting’s and the family’s future. It seems just natural.
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