Luxury market big for Fiji
Rick Hamilton, CEO, Tourism Fiji, talks about targetting the Indian luxury sector and how agents are essential to promote a geographically isolated country like Fiji.
With what expectations have you come to India?
We have a small base coming from India to Fiji. Last year, it grew by 40% so we have significant growth opportunities. We are also planning to increase connectivity and we are very positive about the forward projections for tourism to Fiji.
What are the Indian markets that you are looking at? Are you targetting only the primary markets?
We are travelling to Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru with our roadshow.
For us it’s just about developing the niche markets, the high-end five star products for now. We are primarily looking at the Indian luxury sector.
The product that we have is mainly for honeymooners, so that’s the market that we are going for. As we develop that, there’ll be other possibilities too. Generally, when you are travelling to somewhere as far as Fiji, the proposition needs to be something different. We have a good representation here. From a tourism perspective, we have repositioned our branding. We are trying to create global consistency through our rebranding.
What about the MICE segment?
The MICE segment is a developing market for us, we need to gain more of a foothold. With MICE, first we need to create a demand. We need to make people aware of Fiji as a destination; once that happens and people understand about the destination of Fiji, then there will be great opportunities for the MICE market.
What is your commitment towards the Indian travel trade?
The Indian agents have been very keen on Fiji. It is an opportunity for them to sell more products, they realise there is a potential opportunity here as well. We are very committed to the trade; we are rolling out a multi-programme travel agent portal and training system this year that will allow the agents to understand the different aspects of Fiji market. Besides that, we will also be offering incentives and FAMs for the Indian market. The travel trade is vital for us, especially for a country like Fiji, which is geographically isolated. It is a difficult sell, customers have a lot of questions and they will go to a travel agent, so we are absolutely committed to support the travel trade.