Macau officials order hotel to close for six months over fire safety and malpractice concerns
Blocked exits and excessive storage of flammable materials among violations found at Beijing Imperial Palace Hotel in Taipa
One of the oldest and most infamous five-star hotels in Macau has been forcibly closed down for “posing a threat to public safety’’ and “harming the image’’ of tourism in the city.
In an unprecedented move, the Macau government yesterday ordered the six-month closure of the 500-room Beijing Imperial Palace Hotel on Taipa Island for an array of fire safety breaches.
The hotel opened in 1992 and has a chequered history involving gun violence, high-level drug peddling and rumoured links to organised crime.
De Senna Fernandes cited “serious administrative irregularities” at the hotel, and revealed that other facilities such as restaurants on the premises had already had their licences revoked.
It is the first time a five-star hotel has been ordered to close in the former Portuguese colony and comes at a time of tumbling revenues as the city attempts
to navigate the difficult path from decades of reliance on a VIP-gaming-dominated economic model to becoming a more mass-market tourism destination.
Such has been the severity of the slump, hotels have been offering discounts of up to 35 per cent. Despite this, many still face dire occupancy rates.