Grand Bahama received a major boost to its economy yesterday with the Grand Opening of Sunwing’s Memories Beach and Casino Resort.

The new, all-inclusive resort, based out of Canada has already begun to make its mark, as its occupancy rate is currently set at 91 per cent.

The company’s General Manager Pierluigi Ferro said, the hotel has been opened for a few weeks prior to its big day Monday and has been seeing numbers steadily increase.

He added that the new 450-room resort will benefit all involved, including nearby vendors as there are currently 950 guests in house.

Prime Minister Perry Christie said the people of Grand Bahama have a lot to be grateful for as the high volume of investments on board for the island will do wonders for its economy.

“Whatever governments do, they have to be a facilitator for the country’s culture, manifested and expressed through its people that will cause them to look like they’re happy and feel happy,” Mr. Christie said.

“When people mix with them, when they are happy, then they too will be happy. You know, the Caribbean use to look down at us. Those same other countries to the south use to say that this is servitude and too servile. Now they are trying to take it all from us.”

Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe said the island had suffered an almost decade long slump, which came with many layoffs and terminations, leaving Grand Bahamians jobless.

He said, this much needed turnaround is a sign that the island is on the road to full recovery and that all Grand Bahamians should embrace it and look forward to the development of not just that island, but the other Family Islands as well.

“Today if you listen to the plans for economic development, they don’t stop here in Grand Bahama,” he said.

“They don’t stop in the capital city. They don’t stop in Exuma or Long Island or San Salvador. It’s all over the Commonwealth of The Bahamas where an economic program is taking place to cause for an economic revolution in this country.”

Most of the hotel’s guests are from North America, mainly Canada, where there are six flights going into Grand Bahama on a weekly basis.

According to the hotel’s GM, all of those flights come filled.

Sunwing is one of the world’s top 100 companies with an annual revenue of $1.5 billion.