How This Budget Gets Our Tourism Off Operating Table
Fantasha Lockington is the chief executive officer of the Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association. This is her keynote address at the inaugural symposium hosted by the Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation, at Holiday Inn Suva on July 18, 2020.
My previous boss and mentor Dixon Seeto used to always end his presentations and lobbying efforts with “Imagine a Fiji without tourism.”
It is a year (July 19,2020) that Dixon left us, and that phrase and Dixon’s absence has never been more strongly felt by the association and the industry.
And we have reminded Jenny and Dixon’s family of this today.
And now we have seen what Fiji looks like without tourism, and it is devastating – even if those of us who live and work in Suva are in our own undisturbed bubble and do not see or feel this as strongly.
Doing business post COVID-19, regardless of what business you’re in and regardless of which industry you’re in, whether you’re in the private sector or the public sector, the way business will take place and is already taking place has changed.
No-one understands this better than the tourism industry.
Generally tourism is an industry used to dealing with economic, climatic, political and financial upheavals.
While entire countries have been really struggling with this new health challenge that is dragging economies into decline and tourism industries around the world to a grinding halt, it is a challenge that we are already dealing with.
COVID-19 was different
Fifty years of these consistent challenges identified one clear thing as early as late February or early March to the industry – that COVID-19 was different.
Reports from around the world, from far more advanced economies than ours – showed that we were heading downhill economically and that the effects of the pandemic were going to be felt through to the end of the year or even into the next year.
Believe me, this discussion was initially very difficult to have with stakeholders and government agencies.
And I apologise unreservedly, that you have had to hear me or see me so often in the media in the last few months.
But we really needed to get the message out there that we were bleeding, would continue to bleed badly, and that the private sector can do a lot but this situation needed Government support to make a difference.
There are very few people we have not consulted with or worked with in the private and public sector to talanoa with and note our concern.
As the old saying goes – the squeaky wheel gets the oil – and on July 17, 2020, I believe we got a whole bottle.
New way
From adopting the new health guidelines, preparing for the Bula Bubble and any other bubble that opens up to us, we are preparing to deal with new market demands and even new target markets, new ways people will travel and new guest expectations.
From the airline that will bring guests in, to the airports that process them and the resorts they will stay at, there are changes being implemented that include the new social distancing rules, reducing the need for personal contact, sanitisation, staff awareness and downloading the Care Fiji App.
But it is not just tourism that needs to be prepared.
It is every business that relies in some way – directly or indirectly – on the tourism dollar or the dollar earned from tourism by the tourism business and its workers.
That means that when the borders open, and they will open, banks, transport providers that bring our tourism workers to work, restaurants, supermarkets, suppliers to the industry like food and beverages and dry goods – in short everybody.
COVID-19 travel industry
The alternative is you may not be allowed to interact with tourism businesses otherwise. COVID-19 has given us a great opportunity to restart the travel industry and rebuild it in a way that it can operate more sustainably. The Bula Bubble for example is, in short an overarching strategy for putting in place alternative options that will get progressively updated as we cope with a post COVID-19 travel industry.
At least until a vaccine comes through. In the initial stage, it provides an opportunity for yachts to come in through a prescribed Blue Lane where they get processed before being allowed to access specific areas in Fiji.
The next step allows returning residents and work permit holders entry, if they comply with a specific set of requirements that include testing reports, quarantine for 14 days on arrival and further monitoring. That’s because this group is expected to go into the general community eventually.
It will eventually allow access to visitors from prescribed countries entry through a VIP lane (vacation in paradise) - which will be specifically identified pathways, resorts and transportation routes, that visitors who can provide evidence of COVID-19 negative test results, will be allowed to holiday at.
It is designed to keep our people and our communities safe, while allowing movement of visitors in areas considered capable of being monitored, and applying the new COVID safe Guidelines.
Safety first and foremost
All these processes are being put into place for safety first and foremost.
It is the key to instilling the confidence in those countries we need borders to open up in; that Fiji can provide safety for their citizens whilst still being able to adequately protect our own people.
The next process was ensuring we could provide the competitive edge that will be a critical necessity in the world wide drive to get tourism dependent countries back up again.
Keep in mind that this incudes Australia and New Zealand.
So we have been grappling with how we can effectively deal with our neighbours who we need, but who themselves will be doing similar strategies to offer creative domestic campaigns, to keep the revenue from going offshore whilst working on their own international market stimulus.
The budget announcement on July 17, 2020, was the much needed adrenalin shot in the arm that tourism needed - as the Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum noted in hus 2020-2021 budget address – “to get tourism off the operating table”.
We are now working on what these incentivised packages will look like.
Other areas that are demanding a shift in our focus and change to how we do business now, is dealing with the traditional markets that may not come back initially.
What must we do differently to convince them to come back?
This includes the conference and conventions market that pull us through our traditional low seasons.
And may also include a portion of the family and honeymoon markets.
New markets like the millennials, who travel shorter bursts but travel more often and who demand more value for money and more experiences with the environment, culture and giving back to communities or ecosystems, are some of the expected target markets that travel experts say will be the first to book travel.
And that brings me to the other changes that will be demanded as a consequence of changing markets and changing demands.
We need to seriously ratchet up our accessibility to digital platforms. Wifi everywhere is an expectation now.
It must be offered cheaper and faster and further into our communities because that’s where tourism operates.
Additionally, we need to make more payment gateways available so that our SME’s based around our 333 islands can market themselves directly, and allow that generation of travellers who are expected to be the first people to book travel, to use their phones and book their travel all the way to the small locally owned resort in the northern most Yasawa Islands.
Travel has changed and Fiji cannot afford to be left behind if we don’t embrace every aspect of these changes.