Fiji eyes one million tourists

TOURISM Fiji has unveiled ambitions to return to prepandemic visitor numbers by 2024, a new corporate plan developed with The Pacific Private Sector Development Initiative has noted.

The report states that by 2024 the Pacific island nation seeks to hit the one million international visitors a year mark, representing around FJ$$3.3 billion (A$2.12 billion) to the country’s economy.

Fiji concedes it will need several key pillars of the travel ecosystem to recover and expand in order to achieve the goal, including airline capacity returning to 2019 levels, key markets reopening to travel, a “sufficient” level of financial investment, and a greater number of accommodation options opening up over the next two years.

The country’s tourism body also noted that it will significantly invest in digital marketing efforts to nurture and maintain traditional key markets such as Australia and New Zealand, whilst also looking to grow visitation from more fledgling nations such as Japan, Singapore and India.

“We will work with the best specialist agencies to develop a road map and increase digital capabilities to allow for increased personalisation and enhanced digital experiences for potential visitors,” the report stated.

Keys to increasing tourist numbers will be the development of more tourism experiences and successfully dispersing visitors to areas beyond Denarau.

Another major pillar of the visitation strategy will include hosting more business events, with Fiji’s “natural assets” to be used as the primary hook to attract organisers, focusing in particular on the west of Viti Levu, to achieve a steady flow of meetings and conferences.