Inside Asian Gaming

IAG SEP 2022年9月 亞博匯 36 So that’s the short term plan. And long term, after maybe two years of designing, then maybe five or six years from now there will be a much bigger, better property with that kind of contemporary, modern lifestyle. BB: Can you provide an update on the current investment level you’ve put into this property? And where do you envision the entire investment level reaching over the next five or 10 years? DH: We have invested something between US$500 million and US$600 million right now, but I think our investment from now on is going to be much, much bigger. We’re still in preliminary discussions so I can’t give an exact number. I’ve been talking to some Korean companies and there are some local companies talking to me too. Once everything is ironed out in a couple of months, I think you will see investment in the near future become very big. BB: Clark is rapidly expanding and becoming a genuine destination for leisure travelers but it wasn’t always that way. Why did you see an opportunity in Clark when you first opened Widus back in 2008? DH: I first came here as a tourist in 2005 and when I walked around and I saw the airport I saw the potential, because Manila airport was fully saturated and the Philippine government doesn’t have a lot of money. The most practical way [of lowering costs was by utilizing] what they have, which is Clark. So I strongly believed that someday Clark Airport would be revived, and when it was, this area was going to be very, very different. That’s what I believed. So I thought to myself, “What can I do here? And then I was looking for a property, I found this one and I built the first hotel. Unfortunately, it was not very successful, but I was able to have a casino license and ever since I opened the casino it has been expand, expand, expand. BB: Walking around the property today, it is very clear that this is an international- standard property and well above anything Clark has seen before. How important is it for the area to have this sort of offering available now? DH: In 2014, when I negotiated with Marriott, I asked for the Marriott brand, but Marriott’s Asian headquarters said, “No, Clark is not the market for Marriott, we can give you a Courtyard or something like this.” COVER STORY