Baha Mar is celebrating its first year of operation and looking forward to a strong 2018, with bookings for the coming summer season higher than anticipated.

The Nassau mega-resort welcomed thousands of guests in the festive, winter and Spring Break seasons – often selling out the 1,800-room Grand Hyatt and 299-room SLS.

“I am incredibly proud of the successes we have accomplished and the commitments we have honoured within Baha Mar’s first year of operation,” said Baha Mar president Graeme Davis. “We pride ourselves in serving our resort guests with signature Bahamian hospitality, and the feedback we’ve received from those who have experienced our resort has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Baha Mar launched its three-phase opening 21 April last year, unveiling the Grand Hyatt, casino, conference centre, spa, 18-hole Jack Nicklaus golf course and several retail and dining options. Since then, amenities at the $4.2bn resort have grown to include over 30 restaurants, bars and lounges, the Peter Burwash International Baha Mar Racquet Club and the luxury SLS hotel.

The final stage of the development – the opening of the Rosewood hotel – is expected to be completed in spring this year and will bring the total amount of rooms, suites and villas at the resort to 2,300.

As Baha Mar expands its offerings, it is also expanding its staff. In its opening year, Baha Mar employed 4,000 associates, but it expects to increase that number to 5,000 in the second half of this year.

Climbing visitor numbers can be partly attributed to Baha Mar’s marketing and social media presence. Digital traffic to the resort’s website hit one million visitors within weeks of its launch and average monthly traffic has quadrupled in the last year.

Most visitors to the website are from the US, accounting for 83 per cent of the site’s traffic, closely followed by Mexico, Canada, Brazil and the UK.

Aside from its successes in tourism, the resort has also made a significant contribution to the local community in the past year.

The Baha Mar Resort Foundation was established to support local programmes and initiatives. In 2017, the foundation announced its sponsorship of the Bahamas National Basketball Team, as well as local artists and performers such as the Valley Boys Junkanoo band.

The resort has also partnered with The Reef Rescue Network, a network of organisations and businesses in The Bahamas committed to the creation and management of coral restoration.