Sign of things to come
Excitement grows over tourism hub plan
THE Reef Hotel Casino wants to emblazon its intentions in bold red letters as details emerge about multinational investors circling the Cairns waterfront.
The State Government’s push to get a potential billiondollar “global tourism hub” integrated resort next to the existing casino currently has a dozen proponents lining up their chips.
Cairns MP Michael Healy said the successful bidder would likely get the job of creating global tourism hubs both in Cairns and the Gold Coast, which also has a casino licence set aside for the bold scheme.
“It would be more attractive to have one party to do both but it doesn’t have to be that way,” he said. “There are 12 very serious operators from around the world, literally, that have expressed their strong interest.”
Mr Healy said there was no mention of the project in last week’s State Budget because it would be a private venture on government-owned land.
“They might say they would spend $600 million on developing one site – we don’t need to budget for that,” he said.
Tourism Minister Kate Jones recently returned from Las Vegas, where she met the likes of Caesars Entertainment, MGM and Hard Rock Cafe to discuss their proposals for global tourism hubs in Queensland.
The management of the existing Reef Hotel Casino have said all along they planned to be part of any such discussions and would be open to expansion.
Last week they put it in writing, lodging an application to Cairns Regional Council for permission to erect a 10m-wide illuminated red “CASINO” sign mounted to a steel dome atop the existing hotel.
“The purpose of the sign is to provide a strategically located ‘marker’ or reference point for the casino,” the application states.
“This will be particular assistance to visitors and tourists during night time hours as the casino represents a major night time attraction within the Cairns city-centre.”
The proposal is yet to come before the council.