The Wyndham Nassau Resort re-opened its doors yesterday following a five-week closure.

The closure was a result of low occupancy levels.

Moving forward, Baha Mar Senior Vice President of Administration and External Affairs, Robert Sands said he is optimistic about the hotel’s projected forecast.

“We are continuing to market the hotel so that it can attract business going forward,” he told the Bahama Journal yesterday.

“It’s still very early to tell how the winter months will turn out. Closer into the winter months, we will be in a better position to articulate the actual amount of bookings that have been received in particular, for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s and heading into February. We also include the months leading up to Easter in that projection.”

He said the hotel should still be able to pick up business “right where it left off.”

“We are optimistic that we will achieve our forecasted level of business and we are going to work towards those goals,” Mr. Sands explained.

He also cleared up a misconception about Wyndham employees.

“There was no need for re-hiring because employees were not terminated during this period,” Mr. Sands said.

“They were simply on a layoff for the five-week period or took their vacation.”

This is third time the resort has undergone a temporary closure and the second time it offered employees the option of taking an “early retirement and voluntary separation plan.”

Those employees interested in accepting the package had a four-week window in which to do so.

The resort closed its doors temporarily in 2009 for eight weeks and again in 2010 for six weeks.

The closures impacted more than 1,000 employees.

Earlier this year, Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe expressed hope that the hotel would not have to close again.

“We do understand the difficulty the hotel faces, given the fact that you have construction going on just near the towers of the Wyndham,” he said at the time.

“Once it’s beyond the stage that it is at now in another three, four months, we believe that we will be in better shape. Early next year, we begin the year with several major conferences that will be held at that hotel. We are hoping that they move with haste.”

Mr. Sands said now that the resort has re-opened, the next step is to determine how much was saved during the temporary closure.