The Marriott Hotels is looking at developing a platform to similarly host the Grand Wedding Expo and the renowned Food and Wine Festival later this year.
Marriott Hotels market director of sales and distribution for Fiji and Samoa, Javed Shameem revealed during the Marriott Makes Magic Mini Expo, hosted at the Sheraton Fiji Golf and Beach Resort on Wednesday night.
“We are looking at developing a platform later on this year that will do something on a much larger scale,” said Mr Shameem.
“If you do recall, for those of you that have been around, the Sheraton Fiji used to host its grand wedding expo. So, we are also in the pipeline of bringing that back, as well as the renowned food and wine festival. Discussions are happening around that as well.”
MINIEXPO
The theme of “Marriott Makes Magic Mini Expo” stemmed from the concept of showcasing Marriot Hotel’s unique features by creating an interactive activity for their guests.
Mr Shameem said to make its showcase more interactive, their key partners were present with their respective booths.
“For Marriott hotels here in Fiji, we are trialling and testing a few things out right now. Business development weeks in the past have been where we go out to customers, talk to them,” he said.
Mr Shameem said they were trying to flip it a little bit, taking experiences from the recent Fijian Tourism Exchange.
“What we do internationally with the Marriott exchange programme is we try to develop a platform for our staff to interact with all at once; smaller, micro-small, and medium enterprises to have an opportunity particularly for our local Fijian corporate market,” he said.
“They have access to international guests. We would like to develop a footprint and a pathway for them to have access to all our banking institutions, our financial sector, and the government.”
Their clientele includes Microhire, Kai Wai, Rosie Holidays DMC, Teams up, Hanaleia Creations, Cloud9, South Sea Cruises, Seventh Heaven, Paradise Beverages, Party & Event Hire/Fiji Weddings, DJ Works, Splendid Weddings, Bula Bride, Bula Screen Signs.
Marriott Resort Fiji Marni Bay general manager Silvano Dressino acknowledged the support of the Vu vale in the tourism industry.
“We have seen the dark days during COVID. We are all happy to see now business is booming and providing value to our customers through great hotel stays, but also great activities from all the suppliers in the room,” he said
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