26 DEPARTURES TRAVEL 26 DEPARTURES TRAVEL CHECKING IN Macau Ups the Ante The Book Lounge at the new Karl Lagerfeld hotel, modelled after the late designer’s private study at his Paris villa The Chinese gambling mecca is on a post-pandemic hot streak, now wooing revellers with a glittering cache of blockbuster new hotels. by Lee Cobaj FOR 12 CONSECUTIVE years prior to the pandemic, Macau pulled in more than double to five times the gaming revenue of Las Vegas – despite Las Vegas owning 50 per cent more casinos and receiving twice as many visitors as its Asian counterpart. But in 2020, the buck stopped with Covid. Macau slammed closed its doors, daily visitor numbers plummeted into the dozens, and casinos, along with their associated resorts, ground to a halt. No one would have hazarded to bet that it would be nearly 1,000 days before the border would reopen and visitors would be welcomed back. Three years of pandemic restrictions later, and less than a year into reopening, you might think that Macau would still be playing catch-up, but the former Portuguese colony is already back in the black, galloping ahead of every other gaming centre in the © THE KARL LAGERFELD
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