Melco China Resorts, a unit of Hong Kong-listed Melco International Development, has signed an agreement with Club Méditerranée to create the first Club Med Ski village in China.
Club Med Yabuli Resort in Heilongjiang Province in northeastern China, will open in November.
The Melco parent is also a joint venture partner with Australian casino company Crown Ltd in Melco Crown Entertainment (Nasdaq: MPEL) the developer and operator of the gaming resort City of Dreams on Cotai, Macau, and the VIP-focused casino Altira Macau in nearby Taipa, Macau.
The ski resort is likely to provide opportunities for Melco to cross-promote MPEL’s Macau holidays and entertainment to well-heeled Mainland residents.
Club Med has decided to strengthen its presence in China by opening five venues between 2010 and 2014. The company said its aim is to attract 5% to 10% of China’s potential 4- and 5-star resort customers by 2015. That could mean a database of 200,000 upscale Chinese holidaymakers.
MPEL announced during a conference call for its fourth quarter 2009 results it would not be going ahead with plans for a third casino in Macau–a US$675 million effort on the territory’s peninsula with the working title ‘Trinity’.
MPEL said that it had received a US$12 million refund in December 2009 on a deposit it had paid several years ago to secure land from the Macau government for the project.
