The view from Taveuni Palms Resort....Operations still going strong. (inset Taveuni Tourism Association president John Davies. ). Photo: TAVEUNI PALMS RESORT
By RANOBA BAOA
Some Taveuni island resorts are currently experiencing high occupancy rates, an industry leader said.
This is contrary to recent reports on the declining number of tourists visiting the island.
Taveuni Tourism Association president, John Davies said that while some tourist operators were experiencing low occupancy rates, the same could not be said about others
“Many of our resorts, such as Matangi, Qamea Island resort, Taveuni Palms and Paradise are achieving occupancy levels of over 65 per cent consistently,” Mr Davies said.
“Some resorts are predicting their best ever years due to the considerable number of awards and international recognitions given to these properties.”
Mr Davies said the association felt it was unfortunate that recent media reports did not fully depict tourism on Taveuni because the problem was not only restricted to flight issues.
“It is not the best for some operators but that is not solely down to flight issues, it’s simply that there is a saturation of a certain type and price range of resorts that focus on group bookings which currently can be difficult to get up to the island on the same flight.
Diversified options
“Most resorts that have diversified into the honeymoon, family market and dive resort markets have done very well indeed and offer a unique experience that only a vacation on Taveuni can offer.”
He said meetings held with domestic ailine Pacific Sun have been fruitful and look positive for the industry on the island.
“It is true there is frustration in some of the resorts to do with the frequency of flights coming to Taveuni but the association is confident that these problems will be resolved.
“We plan to work closely with the airlines and have come up with new strategies to give forecasted arrival numbers to Pacific Sun in order to arrange supplementary aircraft to be provided.
“We were very pleased with our meeting with Air Pacific and their willingness to meet with us to discuss our mutual problems.
“However, more importantly, the decisions that we arrived at will facilitate an improvement of these services which will benefit tourism as a whole in Taveuni.”
Mr Davies said this is just one solid solution the association has come up with while others are being explored.
Experience in the industry
Mr Davies has 5 years of experience in the travel and hotel industry but decades of management experience.
He said his position allows him to approach issues at a more neutral level but more importantly to develop the industry on the island.
Vision
“I bring to the table 50 years of management experience and I’m passionate in growing the tourist market in Taveuni.
“The vision is to enlarge the existing membership of the association to include, general retail merchants, taxi association, Government departments and in fact any organisation which is directly or indirectly involved in Taveuni tourism.”