![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/casino.jpg\" "\\"casino\\"")
Local hoteliers and tourism officials have been watching Bermuda\u2019s island neighbours in the Caribbean, where major hotel developments have taken place.<\/p>\nLocal hoteliers and tourism officials have been watching Bermuda\u2019s island neighbours in the Caribbean, where major hotel developments have taken place.<\/p>\n
In the Bahamas, the $3.5 billion Baha Mar Resort is set to open in December 2014 with 284 residences included in their single-phase resort.<\/p>\n
Gaming Commission chairman John Jefferis is convinced the top-of-the-line gaming-focused development project would have never happened without gaming.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt won\u2019t be just one hotel property, it will be a number of branded hotel properties. And without the gaming component it\u2019s very unlikely that project would have become a reality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Considered to be the only project big enough to overshadow the Atlantis resort, the Baha Mar sits on 1,000 acres of property on New Providence Island\u2019s Cable Beach area.<\/p>\n
The Baha Mar Casino is the centrepiece of the development with 1,000 guest rooms and a 100,000-square-foot casino said to rival casinos in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
Partly owned by Harrah\u2019s Entertainment and managed by Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, the project is billed as \u201cthe largest destination resort in the Caribbean\u201d.<\/p>\n
It includes a series of Starwood branded hotels including St Regis, Westin and Sheraton.<\/p>\n
The hotels involved will have a mix of Colonial, European and African architecture with a total of 3,000 hotel rooms.<\/p>\n
Other features include a 50-foot circular waterfall, two spas, an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus championship golf course, 200,000 square feet of meeting space, 3,000 feet of beachfront, chef-branded restaurants, a retail village and entertainment venues.<\/p>\n
The residences fill the three hotels and prices start at $1.5 million, although owners can rent their homes for up to 365 days per year.<\/p>\n
Caribbean hotels experienced a second consecutive year of double-digit increases this year, marking the highest growth in profits since 2008.<\/p>\n
Although profits are still not back to pre-recession levels, the overall outlook is positive.<\/p>\n
As Bermuda prepares for a referendum on gaming, in the Bahamas officials are grappling with the issue of outdated gaming laws.<\/p>\n
Chief Compliance Officer at Baha Mar, Uri Clinton, holds the view that \u201ca modern regulatory gaming regime is key in securing a fair share in the international market and allowing operators to compete on a level playing field\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Clinton is one of the keynote speakers due to address an upcoming Bahamas Tourism Conference on \u201cShrinking the Global Divide: Synergy, Service and Sustainability\u201d.<\/p>\n
The two-day conference begins on September 18 at Atlantis Paradise Island Resort.<\/p>\n
Mr Clinton believes regulations that support the oversight of gaming operations that also allow the operator the flexibility to provide gaming products is the way forward.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Perry Christie has already conceded that a revised legislative regime is needed to regulate the country\u2019s casino sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hoteliers and tourism officials in Bermuda have been watching island neighbours in the Caribbean, where major hotel developments are taking place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[100,137,25],"class_list":["post-38899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","tag-caribbean-2","tag-gambling","tag-hotels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38899\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}