Casino Tourism Has Changed, So Must the Bahamas

Casino Tourism Has Changed, So Must the Bahamas
By John Issa (published by The Bahamas Tribune)

Since the birth of Las Vegas over sixty years ago, casinos were considered, during the earlier decades, a sufficient attraction to be the main draw for a resort or destination.

This has been changing and continues to change at an accelerating pace. The main reason for this trend has been the proliferation of casino gambling throughout the world on land, sea, rivers and in cyber space.

In the old days to find a casino, a gambler had to go to Las Vegas, Monte Carlo, Macau, Baden Baden, Havana, Nassau, a members club in London or some other exotic place that permitted casino gambling.

Then slowly at first and later at an accelerating pace, casino gambling became more available as Atlantic City, many Caribbean islands, Asian countries, South African Homelands, Indian Reservations in the USA, cruise ships and many other locations too numerous to count changed their laws to permit it.

How does this affect us here in the Bahamas? Simply put, the cruise passenger no longer needs to go to a Nassau casino if they want to gamble. The Florida resident who likes to gamble need only drive to Ft. Lauderdale. The residents of the North East of the USA just have to drive to Foxwoods or Atlantic city. In Asia, Macau is now the world's leading and largest gambling destination.

Singapore has joined the game. So the avid gamblers of that region don't have to go far to satisfy their desires. There are casinos all over Middle America and South America, so gamblers living there can satisfy their need for a flutter close to home and no matter where in the world you live you can gamble on line. So we in the Bahamas and more particularly Nassau and Freeport, will have to put more effort into developing and promoting our other attractions because gambling will be less of a draw than is was in years past.

In addition to enhancing ourselves as a destination with new and exciting features and attractions, we have to ensure that we can deliver this attractive vacation experience at a competitive price.

So the creative work in increasing the appeal of our islands has to be accompanied by efforts to reducing the cost of delivering that vacation experience.

It would be useful if the appropriate department of government and the business community evaluated the cost of the inputs with a view to finding ways of becoming more efficient as an economy.

This is something that most business operators do on a daily basis.

However, it is not within the power of a business manager to reduce costs that are a result of the structure of the economy. That is the job of Government. The need for restructuring is urgent.