Revamped GP Museum reopens doors next week

After a long period of closure for a complete renovation, the Macau Grand Prix (GP) Museum is finally ready to open its doors to the public, the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) announced in a media invitation to preview the museum yesterday.
According to the information from the MGTO, the museum should open its doors to the public from next week for a trial period, inviting specific groups to experience and try some of the new facilities and equipment.
As the Times reported in late January this year, the director of the MGTO, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, announced that the museum would finally open its doors within the first quarter of 2021.
Fernandes noted that despite the main construction works ending last year, the museum was not able to open due to delayed interior decoration works.
According to the official, there were delivery delays of some items to Macau, including a total of eight wax figures produced by the world-famous “Madame Tussauds wax museum,” as well as interactive games, which are currently being installed.
She also added that the main issue was that the installation of such items required technical expertise from people abroad. The travel and border restrictions currently in place made it impossible to bring them to Macau.
As also previously announced, in the first phase, the museum will allow local people and groups to visit and experience the museum as a preview to test all the operations before fully opening to the general public and tourists.
The museum will be fully opened to the public during the second or third quarter of this year after other support facilities, such as a cafeteria, become operational.
The revamp of the Grand Prix Museum was tendered in 2017 and was originally intended to be completed in November 2018.
Consecutive delays to the project led to the conclusion of the main construction works only at the end of 2020. According to the latest information from the government, the initial budget of around 300 million patacas has also been significantly exceeded, with the latest forecast pointing to a total cost of around 830 million patacas, almost three-times the initial budget.
The museum closed its doors temporarily to undergo renovation works on 1 July 2017.