I'm surprised that Genting chose Bimini for their casino resort rather than West End, Grand Bahama. West End is also close to Florida's coast, but has a landing strip, a golf course, a marina and hundreds of existing hotel accommodations. Although as the resort was originally a Butlin Holiday Camp, many of the rooms may not be suitable for today's travelers. I doubt that West End residents would show the same opposition to a dock, for the Genting ferry boat. Since Genting will be competing with existing casinos and slots at race tracks and jai-alai frontons, they would benefit from having more amenities for their expected visitors.

I have concerns about some of the decisions being made for the Baha Mar project. It sounds great to build a completely new 5 star project on Cable Beach. But what about Atlantis and its recent financial difficulties. When we first opened Paradise Island and the Bridge in 1967, we had a variety of price points. The Beach Inn, Flagler Hotel, Paradise Island Hotel and the most upscale Ocean Club, to which we added the Britannia Beach in 1968. These different type facilities offered us the opportunity to attract many different market segments. When Baha Mar acquired the Nassau Beach, Emerald Beach and Wyndham Hotel from the Bahamas Government, they had the potential to renovate the facilities. But what was the rationale to demolish the older properties? Any Bahamas resort will need lower priced accommodations when demand is diminished, most of the year? Bahamas hotels enjoy their peak during the Christmas-New Years holidays and reaches a second period of strong demand in mid February. But the room rates drop substantially after Easter and remain low for at least 8 months of the year. And during these slow periods, we must attract conventions and are in competition with many other destinations that don't have the Bahamas' benefit of warm winters to temp the more affluent North American traveler. I totally agree that the rooms around the new casino and entertainment center should be equal or better to Atlantis' best; but why have them all at this level. It seems like a second coming of the Atlantis bankruptcy. I would rather see some of the extra capital put into a light rail service to tie all of the Cable Beach hotels to the new casino and the golf center. And make the public space around the casino all inclusive, with several entertainment options, including a meaningful theater, multiple dining options and retail. And I would further recommend that the other hotels owned by Baha Mar only have restaurant service in a coffee shop, at the pool/ beach area and for room service. The rest should be at the casino/ entertainment center, where all guests in Cable Beach accommodations should be allowed to charge their dinner/ entertainment bills back to their own hotel. (We had inter charge policies in place on Paradise Island in the 1970).