Report shows steady growth in visitor arrivals here

Foreign visitor arrivals last month stood at 60,058, an increase of 5,651 in foreign visitor arrivals to Fiji last month compared to a year earlier, according to a monthly Fiji Bureau of Statistics report. The numbers showed an increase from 48,798 visitor arrivals last month.cent. A majority 74.9 per cent visited the country for holiday purposes, while 7.6 per cent came to visit family or friends. Tourism is a major industry in Fiji, according to Investment Fiji.

The industry contributes 17 per cent to national economic, enabling the employment to around 40,000 people.

In 2012, it is estimated that gross earnings from the tourism industry was $1.3bn, which is about 17.8 percent of national Gross Domestic Product.

Visitors arrivals from China increased from 2,486 to 6,567; Australia from 23,489 to 25,196; New Zealand from 8,253 to 9,868; the United States of America from 6,068 to 7,264; Canada from 1,196 to 1,154; and China from 3,481 to 3,897.

Arrivals also increaed from the Pacific Islands and the rest of Asia, the figures showed. The United Kingdom, Continental Europe, Japan and South Korea all recorded a drop in visitor arrivals numbers. The data is collected from the immigration system and released monthly.While there was a significant drop in visiotr arrivals from 62,248 this January, statistics show that this was a normal trend in February.

The statistics reported 68.8 per cent of visitors fell within the age range of 25-64, 10.3 per cent were children, 11.3 per cent between the ages of 15-24 and 10 per cent of over 65s.