South Korea goes nuts, proposes $275B Tourist City

[zamler]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

A little OT, but I wish people would stop referring to China as a communist nation. It's not communist.

It's pretty difficult to define what type of government China has, but it is ruled by the Communist Party of China.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

capitalist dictatorship then?

That's much more accurate.

If it was communist nobody would be planning around the millions of rich tourists that are traveling the world in increasing numbers and who would happily leave large piles of money behind in penis shaped buildings, no matter what the ruling party's named.

[rabbit]

I'm a bit skeptical about this project since I haven't heard anything else about it anywhere else.

But, the real point to this project is the casinos and gambling which I thought the article missed. Chinese gamblers are a huge market, and Macau is now 4X bigger than Vegas in terms of gambling revenue. It makes financial sense to target those Chinese gamblers, and without all the restrictions Macau comes with- land size limitations, visa restrictions, etc..

All the other stuff-theme park, a water park, a Formula One racing track, a 50,000-seat concert hall, a medical tourism-based "healing town" and a “hallyu town” showcasing Korean entertainment- in the article is just window dressing.

You don't need any of that stuff to attract those Chinese gamblers, who just go to Macau to gamble and only gamble. What makes Macau so profitable for those gambling operators and casinos is that you don't need to build all that other stuff- like the fountains at Bellagio and all those other amentities- to attract and bring in the gamblers.

I suspect that most of that window dressing doesn't get built. Or, if it does, it will only be built by the developers in order to get approval by the Koreans in exchange for letting them build all those casinos since its going to be the Koreans who use all that window dressing, not the Chinese tourists.

[Roast Beef]

Originally Posted by Acey

Alberta could build 91 ring roads around Calgary for that much money, based on the cost of the southeast leg.

I'm betting the Korean's complete 8City before the ring road is finished.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Roast Beef

I'm betting the Korean's complete 8City before the ring road is finished.

And it'll be less of a waste of money too.

(I'm not saying we don't need a ring road, just that it was overprioritzed vs. say the LRT subway and NE/S line.)