Fiji's historic Grand Pacific Hotel is preparing to check in its first paying guests today after a multi million dollar refurbishment.
The 113-room hotel on Suva's waterfront celebrated its 100th birthday last week but lay dilapidated after closing in 1992.
The hotel has undergone a two and a half year, 50 million US dollar restoration job, funded by the national pension funds of Papua New Guinea and Fiji.
The hotel's General Manager Eugene Diethelm says thousands of local people have taken part in celebrations so far and there is much nostalgia associated with the landmark building.
"Indeed it has a very glorious history and we did take that into consideration. The old building remains the same style and left and right we added two wings. Of course, many people have memories here of the good old days, when the Queen came here in 1973 and 1955."
Mr Diethelm says the hotel received 3,000 applications for the hotel's 220 jobs.
