Cherrill Watson calls a spade a spade

Cherrill Watson [pictured right] was appointed just two months age as Director of Marketing at Fiji Visitors Bureau taking over from Jo Tuamoto, who has moved into the commercial sector at Blue Lagoon Cruises and she told The Mole that she thought that she brought to FVB 30 years of valuable private sector influence and experience and that a new approach was needed. 

She said that she had worked across the industry in Fiji, knew Fiji very well and that she was confident that operators felt comfortable with her because she thought the way they thought, while having a full understanding of the public sector.

Adding she hoped that was the case, but two months into the job, perhaps it was a little early to tell and perhaps arrogant of her to think so. 

Nevertheless she said that there would be adjustments in the way things were done and she appreciated and understood that there may have been a knee jerk reaction to get back into business in January and had read the articles and comments in TravelMole, including The Mole’s letter that appeared in the Fiji Times!

She said that hindsight is great but the early campaigns did stop the haemorrhaging and that is what it was all about.

When asked what the main challenges for her in her new role, Cherrill took a very deep breath and said she was researching other NTO’s and learning how they succeeded while also listening for the first two months in the job to what people had to say and to their recommendations. 

She added, that she was not saying that they were right, but that she had to have an open mind and had visited the trade in Australia and asked them what should be done, coming back home to Fiji to get the job done. 

Cherrill said you have to be open and make commercial decisions, which may not be accepted by some people internally or even popular and when asked by The Mole if she would gain support internally and externally, she said that she was not appointed for her loveliness but she was appointed because she can get things done using her track record in disaster and crisis recovery.  She said, “I am not very good at ordinary stuff perhaps but I love crisis!” 

The Mole asked how she was going to secure the funding to promote and market Fiji overseas and she said that the recognition of partnerships was going to be crucial and that cooperative is all that is available to them.  She said that they were about to launch something in Australia and it will be Air Pacific, the FVB, the hoteliers, the wholesalers and it will not be just “let’s go to consumers’ but we will also eblast information to the travel industry, using whatever media we can to get the message across, as simple generic Fiji message out.

I think in Australia there was confusion because of the many deals out there and that was very confusing. We cannot afford branding and we need to get the tactical, the branding and the marketing out into the market based on what we can afford to do and above all be very smart and take advice, listen, to what the public wants and at the end of the day it will have to be mainly tactical for now and then when we recover we will move into branding.

FVB is talking to the Fiji Government at this time, but in reality we are still in survival mode and not only rely on one market with our funds supposed to cover the world.

It is assumed by some in Government that the big hotels have the funds to market themselves and also that tourism is seen as an overseas industry, whereas sugar is a local industry having more of local impact producing something tangible which they can see – sugar!

The facts are that tourism is not an overseas industry bringing really tangible benefit and at the end of the day from a Government perspective, it is really about employment and keeping Fijians in work.

Fijians are also an amazing people never getting despondent and optimistic about the future and that is my approach, because I know that we will recover.

My message to the trade in Australia and New Zealand is thank you to those who have supported us and worked with us and it is nothing to do with Mr and Mr Average in the street, with Fiji the safest country I know – I do not even have a house key and have never locked my car!

Thank you Cherrill.

A Report by The Mole on location in Fiji