Arrival numbers take drastic plunge
MORE than 30 hotel properties were working hard with Fiji Airways to entice tourists to our shores, Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said as he revealed for the first time the drastic plunge in tourism arrival numbers.
He said Fiji Airways flight bookings plunged by more than 90 per cent, from 22,000 a week to 2000 as a direct result of COVID-19.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum made the comment during a Fiji Chamber
of Commerce and Industry business response to coronavirus meeting at the Grand Pacific Hotel, Suva, yesterday.
“The CEO of Fiji Airways told me that the flight booking was 22,000 bookings per week which was not bad, after the announcement it went down 2000 bookings,” he said.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the change was “dramatic”.
He said it was important to note how much the impact of COVID-19 would have on the local economy because the tourism sector in Fiji contributed more than 30 per cent to GDP.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the reality was that two of Fiji’s largest source markets Australia and New Zealand had placed a number of restrictions in respect of their citizens travelling abroad.
He said the fact that Australia had not made any exceptions for the Pacific made a huge impact on the country.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum highlighted that Australia contributed more than 50 per cent of Fiji’s total arrivals.
“So the impact on us is far greater in respect of an impact on our economy, it is far greater in the tourism sector.
“New Zealand have said that any Kiwi citizen travelling to any part of the world, except the Pacific, has to go to self-isolation upon return.”
The CEO of Fiji Airways told me that the flight booking was 22,000 bookings per week which was not bad, after the announcement it went down 2000 bookings
– Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum