SINGAPORE: With ticket prices for its Universal Studios revealed, Resorts World Sentosa is now ramping up preparations before its soft opening early next year.

It has confirmed 30 event bookings, including the largest - the World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention. That event is expected to attract 4,000 business leaders in October 2011.

The integrated resort at Sentosa has also received expressed interest for events up to 2014.

Meanwhile, final testing has started on some of the rides it will offer in the Universal Studios theme park.

80-kilogramme dummies filled with water have been going on daily joy rides morning to night (8am to 7pm) on the Battlestar Galactica, the world's tallest pair of duelling roller coasters.

Stringent tests are needed as the roller coasters take thrill seekers through several inversions and near collisions - just mere inches apart.

Other than technical wizardry, the integrated resort - which recently won a Green Mark award - has also put in some special green features, such as a special canopy at the entrance.

Resorts World Sentosa's assistant director for projects, Au Seng Lye, said: "This special canopy cuts off the heat from the sun and reduces the temperature in the spaces below by 3 to 5 degrees and gives visitors a cool feeling when they enter."

In addition, eco-coolers, which use about 20 percent of the energy used by conventional airconditioners, will cool down visitors ruffled by the heat.

The resort is also making sure it does not use a single drop of drinking water to water its extensive landscaping. It has a lagoon to collect rain water which is then used to irrigate the greenery within the place, saving the company over S$160,000 a year.

And if erratic weather patterns keep the rain away, the plan is to use water from aircon condensation to keep the lagoon's water levels steady.

Resorts World hopes to attract some 13 million visitors next year, with 30,000 daily just for Universal Studios.

Source: channel news asia

Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS.N) expects to open its $5.5 billon, 2,700-room Singapore casino resort in phases starting in the first quarter of next year, a company spokesman said on Thursday.

He declined to give a specific date for the opening -- which will include 800 to 1,000 hotel rooms -- but a source close to the company said it would be "toward the end of March."

The first phase of the project will also include the casino, some of the retail operations and some of the meeting and convention space, said spokesman Ron Reese.

Sands said in July that it was making every effort to open the triple-tower property, called Marina Bay Sands, by February 15, 2010.

The company is now in the process of raising segments of the resort's "sky park" -- a 1,200-foot-long (360-meter) span running across the top of the three 55-story hotel towers.

Half of the 14 segments are in place.

About 60 days after the opening of the project's first phase, Sands aims to open the remainder of the hotel rooms, additional retail space and the sky park, Reese said.

By the end of 2010, the company expects the rest of the attractions, including the theaters and museum, to open.

Souce: Reuters.com