When Baha Mar and The Pointe are fully opened, Chinese investors will own about 42 percent of the rooms in large hotels on Nassau and Paradise Island and 29 percent of the total rooms of both islands, according to statistics gleaned from the Ministry of Tourism's Hotel Licensing Department in a study entitled "Number of Hotels and Hotel Rooms in The Bahamas (2016)". They will also own the largest casino in the region.
Baha Mar is set to open in just 10 days, but when it is fully operational by the first quarter of 2018, it will represent the largest chunk of rooms managed by private Chinese investment on Nassau and Paradise Island. However, when it opens it will still be locked in the
final stages of being completely sold to Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (CTFE), meaning the Export-Import Bank of China will have ownership of Baha Mar as it welcomes its first guests.
Government has promised to reveal the terms of the new Baha Mar deal after its first phase, soft opening on April 21. According to what has been released about the deal, CTFE will take full control of the resort only when China Construction America has fully completed construction.
It was suggested last week by a thedailybeast.com contributing writer that Chinese investment in the $4.2 billion property in The Bahamas has amounted to them being "in control of a country just 180 miles from the coast of the United States". And while CTFE is a private investor, there have been suggestions that the ties of the company's owner to the government of China is tantamount to significant Chinese influence on the tourism sector of The Bahamas.
Chinese interests have managed to take control of the majority of large, prime tourism-related real estate on New Providence, while Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa continues to have a stranglehold in Grand Bahama. And now with the Warwick resort open for business, Chinese investment has moved into Paradise Island.
The assertion is that The Bahamas is or could become entirely dependent on China for its economic future. Credit rating agencies Standard and Poor's and Moody's have already placed the success of Baha Mar high upon the pedestal that is The Bahamas' economic health.
In reality, Chinese investment will account for almost half of the rooms in The Bahamas' capital when Baha Mar and The Pointe are completely open. The article, therefore, makes an interesting case for the level of influence the Chinese will have on The Bahamas' main economic driver - tourism.
Former Immigration Minister Brent Symonette, however, told Guardian Business last week after learning of the thedailybeast.com article that while the level of Chinese investment in The Bahamas may be high, to make the assertion that China now owns the country is "out of line".
Chinese investment in The Pointe on Bay Street near the U.S. Embassy, allegedly forced the embassy to purchase new property to relocate its operations to. The article asserts that The Bahamas is pushing out American influence, ceding that power to China.
While the article suggests China's influence on The Bahamas might not be good for U.S. diplomacy, an Inter-American Development Bank study called 'Chinese Rise in the Caribbean', suggests Chinese investment in tourism could be a good thing in the long run.
"An opportunity clearly exists for Caribbean tourism-dependent economies to target this higher income bracket, those who may be seeking different experiences and opportunities to explore far-flung and exotic cultures," the study states.
"For the Caribbean to capture more of the Chinese market, many changes and investments would have to be made, such as visa exemptions for Chinese nationals, more five-star hotel properties, better personal and property security, more offerings of Chinese cuisine, the hiring of Mandarin and Cantonese speakers as staff and tour operators, sensitizing staff and tour operators to Chinese cultural proclivities and differences, developing marketing materials and signage in Mandarin language, offering more price-competitive shopping experiences, and establishing more airlift connections."

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