Fiji hotels chief says business far from normal
Fiji Islands Hotels Association President Dixon Seeto said over the weekend that Fiji tourism is far from normal and it will take a while for the industry to bounce back to its feet.
Mr Seeto said much had been said about the industry quickly recovering from the aftermath of the overthrow of the Qarase Government but that was far from the real picture, adding, “There has been a lot of public pronouncement that the Fiji tourism industry is getting back to normal.” “This is not true”.
“The reality is that the industry in Fiji is struggling to move forward and that is a fact.
He said, “We have to face the reality here that things are not normal.”
He also added that stakeholders in the industry should act responsibly and not pretend that things are getting well and really up in the industry when it is well short of the mark.
Mr Seeto said it was true the industry was nowhere near where it was at the same time last year and that bookings and visitor arrival forecasts were not looking promising.
“I can state here that forward bookings in hotels, which is usually good here in Fiji, are still very weak at this stage.”
Mr Seeto said the travel advisory imposed by countries around the world was one of the major factors leading to the slow revival rate for the industry, adding, “This is definitely not helping at all, but we do understand where they are coming from because their agents just do not want to take any risk.”
Mr Seeto said, “Agents are very cautious of their respective travelling public from around the world, and yes, it is detrimental to the economy”.
He said, “If things were returning to normal, why are the casual workers from hotels still without any jobs and some of the permanent staff still working short hours, adding “We are unfortunately far from normal,”.
However, Mr Seeto did commend the work of the Tourism Action Group that is working on ways to win back visitors to Fiji and added, “We are still working together with the TAG team and there is hope we will rebuild the industry, at the moment the team is in its second phase.”
“The work has been on the promotion of tourism activities and this has been supported by stakeholders in the industry.”
He said a lot more needed to be done to revive the industry and for it to achieve the billion-dollar mark that was forecasted before the political upheaval and that the TAG team had left at the end of last week to do promotional work in Japan.
He said the association and all tourism industry stakeholders were committed in tackling the problem from all fronts.
Tourism Minister Bernadette Rounds-Ganilau said the industry was not in the same position as it was last year, but work to improve the standard and the image of the industry was progressing well.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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