CalvinAyre.com: Tigre de Cristal casino named Russia’s best resort

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.