Fiji tourism industry remains buoyant

Transcript

More than 700,000 visitors are expected to have visited Fiji this year in what the Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association says will be another record year for the industry.

The association's president Dixon Seeto was speaking at the association's AGM over the weekend.

He told Koroi Hawkins the friendliness of Fijians is the key to the industry's success, and a reason why 20 percent of visitors return to Fiji year after year.

Dixon Seeto: The industry is in a very buoyant state. We, again, are looking at a record tourism arrival this year; over 700,000 people. And you know, given the fact that the national carrier also has a new fleet which is more efficient and has better range. I think, coupled with a viable and healthy national carrier, I think history is poised for greater development in the future and we are just waiting for the announcement of their new Asian service. I'm advised that it will be announced very shortly within a couple of weeks and it might be from one of our major emerging markets. So all in all, the industry stakeholders work closely together and I think that's supported by tourism Fiji, our national tourism office, and the ministry, and our ministry of tourism.

Koroi Hawkins: You have come out saying that one of the important aspects of the tourism industry is the returning guests. So there's something about Fiji tourism that makes people come back for second or third holidays.

DS: Yes, well we have many people who come back to Fiji year after year. I've worked in some of the resorts where, and this is not uncommon for many of the hotels and resorts in Fiji, where a visitor can come back to Fiji 15, 20 times year after year. And that is mainly due to the friendliness of the Fijian people. And they develop a connection with a family or someone from a nearby village. That is very good because, apart from coming here for a holiday, they actually get involved with families and with the culture of our country. And this is good because it's a family holiday destination; the parents bring their children and the children will bring their children back for holidays. And this is the result of them enjoying their holidays time and again.

KH: Pulling out a bit and looking at a more regional aspect of the industry in the Pacific, do you see it leaning more towards a more Asian market or are we changing in any way or should we change?

DS: Well Fiji's two main markets are Australia and New Zealand. They contribute 51% and 60% of our arrivals respectively. These two markets will, I think, be still a main stay of our tourist arrivals. We are working very hard obviously to develop new markets. We have good traffic from North America, and from UK, Europe. We are now looking at, obviously, developing the Asian market because that's where the economic growth is at the moment. And for instance, China have a huge outbound market. Already we have a sizeable Chinese market coming in via Hong Kong. Hopefully if there was a direct service it would certainly develop that market in a big way.