Authorities think the resort could have a future as more Australians look to holiday on the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Australia.-\u00a0With more Australians looking to spend vacations on Christmas Islands and the Cocos Islands due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, local authorities are considering attempting to re-licence the formers’ once famous casino resort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There has been a surge of interest in holidays on the islands, which are duty-free territories because Australians will not have to quarantine once they return to the mainland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\u00a0Christmas Island Tourism Association says it cannot recall interest being so high, and that the island is attracting a broader range of travellers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christmas Island has a clifftop resort and casino which has been closed since 1998. It used to get visitors from Indonesia and Malaysia but since closure has only been used to occasionally house\u00a0federal government workers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Local authorities believe they are missing out on an opportunity which would also help finance infrastructure on the island.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christmas Island shire councillor Gordon Thomson told WA Today that until 2019 the island had been making progress on getting the government to reopen the facility but that the decision belongs to the\u00a0cabinet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said: \u201cIt\u2019s a complete and utter waste. I call it an economic crime. The community wants it and it was successful. It\u2019s a significant piece of real estate and it should happen.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Authorities think the resort could have a future as more Australians look to holiday on the island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11237,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Local authorities on Christmas Island are exploring the re-licensing of a former casino resort, closed since 1998, to capitalize on a surge in Australian domestic tourism driven by COVID-19 travel restrictions. The initiative aims to leverage the island's duty-free status and generate revenue for local infrastructure, with the final decision resting with the Australian federal cabinet.","focusai_entities":"Christmas Island Tourism Association, Gordon Thomson, Australian federal government","focusai_location":"Australia, Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, Indonesia, Malaysia","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.85), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.85)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Hurdles?","query":"What specific regulatory and licensing hurdles must be addressed for the Christmas Island casino resort to secure re-approval from the Australian federal cabinet, particularly concerning B2B\/B2C licensing and governance frameworks?"},{"label":"Market Opportunity?","query":"What is the projected GGR and NGR potential for a re-licensed Christmas Island casino, considering its historical performance, the current domestic tourism surge, and the competitive landscape within the Australian gaming verticals?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,28],"tags":[289,29],"class_list":["post-11235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-casino-news","tag-australia","tag-casino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11235"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11238,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11235\/revisions\/11238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}