Brent Hill
CEO, Tourism Fiji
Ever since Fiji opened borders to fully vaccinated visitors from Travel Partner countries for quarantine-free travel on 1st December 2021, it’s been an exciting time for us. We’re happy to see so many people travelling and extending the average stay to over a week. We expect some 75,000 inbound tourists to visit Fiji over the next few months. Though India currently does not feature under our ‘Travel Partner’ countries, we are positive and hopeful to be soon able to welcome Indian travellers back to our shores.
All along the way, last year, we focused on the positives – our vaccination rollout, local tourism re-opening, December re-opening for international visitors, renovations being completed, and campaigns being planned. We had a lot to talk about, and we kept communicating about Fiji. Our priorities were to keep our markets abreast with the latest destination developments from a leisure perspective and COVID-19 safe measures that were being worked on.
As we enter the new year, we will continue encouraging discussions during our regular trade meetings, collate feedback and assess the trade needs to complement and support them. We are confident both our trade and consumer initiatives will play an enhanced role, as they will help support the travel decision-making process in favour of Fiji and simultaneously raise the profile of Fiji as a visitor destination from India.
Investing in public safety protocols to keep all visitors as protected as possible through the Care Fiji Commitment has been the most critical element and will continue to be for us. Last year, tourism Fiji launched the Care Fiji Commitment Programme as an operational COVID-safe framework for all tourism operators and service providers. Over 1000 businesses are registered under the Care Fiji Commitment Programme, which ensures these properties, operations, and services uphold COVID-safety practices approved by the World Health Organization and recognised by the World Travel and Tourism Council.
With the successful re-opening of borders for our ‘Travel Partner’ countries, we succeeded in generating a positive image of Fiji – that we are safe, ready, focussed, and a destination that could handle tourists, ensure they had fun and relaxed while keeping them as safe as possible. The buzz around Fiji has been positive and incredible. Our immediate goal is to keep communicating with the trade and consumer to maintain destination confidence and, alongside this work, to aspire affluent travellers who seek premium and personalised experiences to visit Fiji soon.