Fiji’s tourism industry is united
A report in the Fiji Times says that the military takeover in December last year united industry stakeholders with the common goal of rebuilding and rescuing Fijis tourism, says Fiji Visitors Bureau chairman, Patrick Wong.
Mr Wong said the strength and resourcefulness of the industry was clearly demonstrated in the months after the takeover as stakeholders joined forces to work on achieving improvement.
He said stakeholders mounted a series of tactical advertising campaigns in all our major markets.
“The Bureau has just completed a very successful travel industry road show through the USA, participated in the incentive travel show in Chicago and we have also organised a series of trade shows in Canada,” Mr Wong said.
“There was also the very important Travel Forum in Newport Beach, which was hosted by Air Pacific, which cemented Fijis relationship with wholesale partners in the USA for 2008 programs. “Simultaneously there are special promotional campaigns under way in Germany, Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, Japan and Korea.”
Mr Wong said the Bureau recognised its commitment to all segments of Fiji tourism and there were new creative initiatives about to be launched for the backpacker market, including the launch of an electronic and printed brochure on affordable travel in Fiji.
He said they had completed electronic brochures that promoted Fijis hideaways to inform the world about the special areas of interest and great beauty outside the traditional tourism belt.
“We have a brochure now to entice families, the older market which we have termed “the silvers”, as well as promotional material about soft adventure in Fiji and about the conference and incentive market.”
“The Bureau in conjunction with the national carrier will be making a DVD specifically to promote Fiji for groups and are working with the private sector to produce a calendar of sporting events to bring visitors to our shores in the trough months,” said Mr Wong.
Mr Wong said Australian and New Zealand visitors were still traveling to Fiji with a comparatively modest drop in numbers and he estimated that Fiji had lost about seven per cent from Australia but quite a lot more from New Zealand.
He said the traditional visitors have shortened their average length of stay with the trend towards much shorter, 4-day breaks.
He said this has impacted the occupancy levels at hotels while there are many more hotel rooms now to fill.
In 2006 there were 8748 hotel rooms to fill but following a growth of 7.5 per cent in available rooms, the total number of rooms currently stands at 9403.
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