‘Tourism saving Fiji’ Arrival forecasts concern minister
WHILE an upsurge in hotel bookings is a huge boost for the Fijian economy as it rebounds from the economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis, Tourism Minister Viliame Gavoka is concerned the industry may not be able to cater for the increase in visitor arrivals expected in 2023.
He said after recent consultations with tourism stakeholders in the Western Division and forecasts that the first quarter arrivals would be the best ever in Fiji’s history, it was found there was a real need for more resorts and hotels.
“So there is a momentum that has been building for Fiji and that’ll carry us through to this year and the Minister of Finance spoke yesterday (Thursday) about the economy and he had indicated that tourism will be the saviour of Fiji for 2023 and 2024,” he said.
“We will be banking on tourism and further down the line the other sectors of the economy will kick in but immediately tourism is saving Fiji.”
Mr Gavoka said the peaceful transition of government after the 2022 General Election could be a contributing factor to this.
“One of the concerns that we have is that there is going to be an increase in airline seats coming to Fiji with Fiji Airways adding additional flights.
“The concern is to marry that with the accommodation and inventory on the ground. “We are talking about seats versus beds. “Everyone is feeling very confident about 2023 so much so that some of the hotels are forecasting for the first quarter to be the best ever in their history.
“The first quarter from January to March is normally the difficult period for business but here we are having the hotels and the airlines saying that they have never seen the kind of bookings that they have in their books today.
“So the momentum that started from post-COVID is still very strong. We are riding on a wave that will bring tourism back in a huge way in 2023.”