The Tigre de Cristal casino in Russia’s far east Primorye gaming zone has been named the best resort in the country by an international awards panel.
This week, the 25th annual World Travel Awards – considered the ‘Oscars’ of the hospitality industry, or so we’re told – were handed out at a gala ceremony in Athens. Tigre de Cristal picked up the trophy for Russia’s Leading Resort 2018, beating out three Radisson properties and two other resorts.
Tigre de Cristal was previously nominated in the category of Russia’s Leading Hotel in 2017, but failed to take home the hardware. Given the fact that Tigre de Cristal opened less than three years ago, the back-to-back nominations either say a lot about the property’s reputation for opulence or call into question the pace of development in the rest of the country.
Regardless, Stylianos Tsifetakis, CEO of the property’s management company G1 International, called the award “a great honor for us” and said it bode well for the overall tourist industry in Russia’s far east.
Primorsky Krai Department of Tourism director Konstantin Shestakov was also in a celebratory mood, calling the award “of great importance for the tourism industry of our region.” Shestakov said he expected even greater things following the opening of Tigre de Cristal’s second phase in late 2019.
While Tsifetakis (pictured left) may have got to take the bows, much of the credit should be going to Melco International boss Lawrence Ho, who drove the development of Tigre de Cristal before selling out last year in order to focus on his existing resort casino projects in Macau, Manila, Cyprus and (hopefully) Japan.
There are three other Primorye projects in the works, with NagaCorp’s Naga Vladivostok being the furthest along and the closest to joining Tigre de Cristal as a functioning entity, hopefully by late 2019. Diamond Fortune Holdings’ Selena venue isn’t expected to join the party until 2020 while the Shambala project won’t even break ground until later this year.
