Baha Mar is China's Caribbean gateway.

The $3.4 billion Baha Mar resort in the Bahamas will change the nature of the Caribbean resort industry when it opens next year. The project, which includes more than 2,200 rooms and the region's largest casino, is large enough to attract visitors from other islands and compete with the Atlantis, the Bahamas' current 3,000-room mega-resort. villa qatar

Baha Mar will need to draw new customers and expand a market that is still recovering from the 2008 financial crisis.

President Tom Dunlap told WPC News, "This actually makes the entire destination be better known as a destination, not just a single resort spot."

"We compete with Las Vegas and Macau casinos with our 100,000 square foot casino. This is a casino that is truly a destination. It's more than a convenience."

China is Baha Mar's not-so-secret arm. The project is backed by a $2.5 billion loan from China's Export-Import Bank, and the general contractor is China State Construction and Engineering Corporation. China State also bought a small stake in the project.

Baha Mar will be one of the Caribbean's first large-scale attempts to attract Chinese visitors. Can Baha Mar, on the other hand, draw a large number of new Chinese visitors? Or will the 2,200 new rooms actually eat into the business of other resorts' visitors?

"It doesn't take much to fill up 2,000 rooms from China if they can solve the visa problem and encourage their people to travel more freely," said Scott Smith, senior vice president of PKF Consulting, which monitors the business.

However, if Baha Mar relies on new business development, Mr. Smith predicts that the project would "negatively affect the Caribbean in 2015, in terms of other assets." "They'll almost certainly reduce prices. There will be a rate battle."

When Bahamas businessman Sarkis Izmirlian began working on a project on Cable Beach in 2004, the Caribbean was a very different market. Mr. Izmirlian sold a 43 percent stake to Harrah's Entertainment in 2006, but the American company abandoned the project in 2008, causing Baha Mar to file lawsuits.

At the time, Baha Mar wasn't the only mega-project in trouble in the Bahamas. When Florida developer Bobby Ginn defaulted on construction loans in 2008, his plan to build a $4.9 billion resort and golf complex with 1,400 homes on West End, Grand Bahamas, fell through, resulting in a new round of litigation.

The arrival of Chinese conglomerates, which were aggressively developing construction projects in Latin America, changed Baha Mar's destiny. The funding package was conditional on China State serving as the construction company, which is a typical arrangement for Chinese companies working on international projects.

The Bahamas government pledged $400 million to expand Nassau's Lynden Pindling International airport and another $70 million to construct a four-lane highway linking Cable Beach to the rest of the island, which aided the agreement. Under the terms of the Hotel Encouragement Act, the government also exempted the project from duties on construction materials and equipment.

Mr. Dunlap said that the government "has been very hands on" in bringing Baha Mar to fruition. In the first year of activity, the development is expected to inject $1.1 billion in investment and direct taxes into the Bahamian economy, increasing the country's GDP by 10%.

The 26-story, 1,023-room Baha Mar Casino and Hotel, the 26-story Grand Hyatt with 700 rooms, the 295-room Mondrian, and a smaller, 192-room Rosewood will all be linked by a central podium at Baha Mar. The 2,200 rooms will be added to the 1,250 rooms already available at the Sheraton Cable Beach Resort and the Wyndham Nassau Resort, which are both on the property.

Mr. Dunlap, who worked for the Walt Disney Company for 15 years, said, "It really is a brand-centric product offering, which also differentiates it." He was president of Revolution Places Growth, the real estate arm of AOL founder Steve Case's company, where he worked on the $1 billion Cacique development in Costa Rica, before joining Baha Mar.

Baha Mar includes 284 residences spread across the project, priced from $1.5 million to $15 million for a four-bedroom villa with private pool in the Rosewood development, in addition to hotel rooms and a Jack Nicklaus golf course. (Timeshares were part of the initial proposal, but Mr. Dunlap said the joint ownership plan was shelved.)

According to Integra Realty Resources, a consultancy, Baha Mar sold more than $100 million in property last year, with 50 of the 307 units sold. According to Mr. Dunlap, the "vast majority" of the properties have been sold to non-US residents, a significant change for the Bahamas.

"We would have been almost solely selling in the United States in 2006 and 2007," Mr. Dunlap said. Instead, London, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East are also part of the marketing strategy.

"We started selling through channels in London, Asia, the Middle East, and finally North America," Mr. Dunlap explained.

When it comes to attracting hotel guests to the Bahamas, Baha Mar is likely to follow a similar global strategy. The developers hope that the new airport will help attract more flights from Europe and Asia. The Bahamas is already on the radar of the Middle East industry, as the Atlantis is owned by a Dubai World investment arm.

After a period of stagnation, tourism to the Bahamas is on the rise, with 1.4 million visitors arriving in 2012, up 5.4 percent from the previous year, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization. The first quarter of 2013 saw a 14 percent increase in revenue per room in the Caribbean, according to STR.

The casino will be a major draw for Baha Mar. The Atlantis, with a floor area of 50,000 square feet, is the Caribbean's second largest casino.

Mr. Dunlap said that the 100,000 square foot casino "puts us on par with Las Vegas casinos and Macau casinos." "This is a casino that is truly a resort. It's more than a convenience. It is the diagram's middle."

Although Atlantis caters primarily to families, Baha Mar will cater to a more mature audience. The area is referred to as Baha Mar in promotional materials "The Bahamian Riviera is a popular tourist destination in the Bahamas. "The casino helps us to attract people from new places, such as Latin America, Asia, and Europe," says the company "e said.

All four hotels and the casino are scheduled to open at the same time, probably by the end of 2014. The towers were completed earlier this year after construction began in February 2011.

When the project is finished, 400 acres of the 1,000-acre site will be available for potential construction.

Mr. Dunlap predicted that "the demand for various types of real estate products will grow rapidly." "In five years, there will be new great ideas, and we will have the space to implement them."