22 Aug 2007

More money for tourism is dead horse, says Chaudhry

6:14 am on 22 August 2007

Fiji's interim finance minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, says the tourism industry is whipping a dead horse by continuously asking for more money for marketing.

The comment, reported on Fiji TV last night, follows repeated statements from tourism stakeholders that 1-point-2 million US dollars promised to them for marketing hasn't been released.

Mr Chaudhry says all the money that was due to the Fiji Visitors Bureau has been paid out and it should now spend the 960-thousdand US dollars that was not used last year.

But the permanent secretary for tourism says they haven't received the money that was promised.