Demand for car rentals increase, New Year looks hopeful
The demand for rental cars has drastically increased during the long festive season. As families plan their New Year activities, Fiji Rental Car Association (FRCA) is expecting rental cars to be booked out.
Association president Shalit Kumar said the demand from visitors from abroad had been on the high as well.
He said it was good to see business pick up for rental car operators.
“The upcoming new year is about hope and great anticipation for better days ahead for Fiji and its special because we have opened our international borders and thousands of people have returned to work. Tourists, families, former citizens are arriving in numbers and this is after so many months,” he said. Mr Kumar also said there are lots of family vacations, functions happening during this time of the year and the demand was usually high at this time of year.
“The general feedback from operators is that it has been a better year when compared to 2021,” he said. “There have been periods where business has been down, but the public holidays and festive season has generally helped the operators.”
He said this year had been about recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and mostly businesses were breaking even from the losses incurred last year.
Mr Kumar said during the pandemic, there was hardly any business for so most operators.
He said looking back, the little business that came from local customers was only enough to sustain operational costs.
“Business slowly picked up since the opening of the local borders, but a major impact in the upward of the business, resulted from the re-opening of the international borders and the re-opening of our hotels,” he said.
“We wish to remind all drivers to obey the road rules and reserve special mention to rental car hirers that rental cars are not racing cars. Every driver has responsibility over their passengers and other road users.”
Fiji Rental Car Association wishes its members and the public a Happy New Year.