Kerzner International has announced its new partnership with the Miss Bahamas Organisation (MBO), in an effort to take the pageant into a new era of show production.

Atlantis will serve as the title sponsor and venue for the 2012 Miss Bahamas Beauty Pageant on July 29.

Kerzner’s Senior Vice President of Special Events Michele Wiltshire said the company is pleased to partner with MBO and promises a production to rival major international pageants.

“What you’ll see is a production set up in the Grand Ballroom here at Atlantis that will rival anything in the world,” Ms. Wiltshire said.

“As you know we’ve now successfully as a destination and as a property hosted Miss Universe, numerous Miss Teen pageants and we’re thrilled now to officially host Miss Bahamas. It really comes in an environment of great production know how, a stage, a runway, an infrastructure, lighting, audio and setup that really takes the pageant in its execution to a whole new level.”

The resort is also putting a special effort behind promoting the event on a national and international level.

“This event will be featured on our website. When you consider the millions of people a month that goes on the Atlantis website, this now becomes a featured event on our website. It will be included in our advertising; it will be included in our database mailers and internally through our communications to our larger teams and to their largest teams.”

The theme of this year’s pageant is ‘Rising of the Phoenix.’

Calling it a “watershed moment” in the organisation’s history, MBO’s President Michelle Malcolm said the new partnership signals a rebirth.

“I got the feeling that even though we were going through hard times, we would have a rebirth of this pageant and thus the theme The Phoenix,” Ms. Malcolm said.

“To see it all come to the point where we are today, where we are truly being reborn as a pageant and in many ways as an organisation, it’s just really a magnificent moment to experience.”

MBO’s Media Relations Director Jerome Sawyer added that the partnership represents the culmination of years of work.

“We in the Miss Bahamas Organisation have really been working diligently over the past few years to bring this event to a premiere event,” Mr. Sawyer said.

“One of the things that we’ve always wanted to do when we started this organisation was to restore pageantry into The Bahamas to the glory and to the excitement that it once held.”

Fourteen contestants are participating in this year’s double crown pageant.