It’s almost two years since Fiji’s borders were flung back open to the outside world, and a huge number of new attractions are now being set up, hotels constructed and new tours planned as the number of visitors smashes pre-COVID figures.
“Visitation to Fiji is tracking really, really well,” said regional director Australia at Tourism Fiji, Rob Thompson.
Despite cost of living rises, Australians don’t appear to be ready to sacrifice spending on travel, and they’re looking for good short-haul holidays around the Pacific.
“They still need to want to escape their daily lives, and we’re getting quite a few Australian travellers who’ve never been before,” Mr Thompson said.
Fiji has everything going for it, he added; it’s easy to access, it has a good health and safety record, it has a high level of security for investment and there are a lot of new developments in the pipeline.
The last consecutive 12 months of Australian visitors to Fiji, up to the end of August 2023, surpassed all pre-pandemic levels, with visitor arrivals peaking in January 2023, up 34 per cent above 2019 levels, according to Tourism Fiji data.
Global visitor numbers were up six per cent up on 2019 levels for the same month, driving AU$310 million (FJ$466.04m) of income for the year till the end of August 2023.
In that same 12-month period, Australians made up 41 per cent of the total visitors, New Zealanders 28 per cent, and the US and Canada contributed 13 per cent.
With such a robust rebound in popularity, hotel, resort and tour companies are all now scrambling to upgrade or introduce new product in order to seize the new opportunities and accelerate the upturn.
Among the upcoming changes are a multi-million-dollar renovation of Outrigger Fiji on the Coral Coast, plans for a second Radisson Blu hotel on Naisaso Island, and the building of the first Crowne Plaza Hotel in the country, a massive conversion of the old Pullman Nadi Bay.
“We were getting great momentum with visitors before COVID, but it’s absolutely exploded and is going from strength to strength,” said managing director, Australasia and Pacific, IHG Hotels and Resorts, Matt Tripolone, who’ll be opening the 326-room Crowne Plaza Fiji Nadi Bay Resort and Spa in March this year.
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