How to keep the sugar in Fiji tourism

In the a Fiji Times report from an interview with interim Minister for Tourism, Bernadette Rounds-Ganilau, she told Robert Matau of the Fiji Times that tourism had the potential to exceed sugar as Fiji’s top foreign exchange earner.

Mrs Rounds-Ganilau explains how she hopes to achieve that objective, which includes trying to get foreign embassies to lift their travel advisories.

She said overseas travel agents were troubled by the advisories because it affected insurance cover sold as part of holidays in Fiji.

However, she said the agents still sold Fiji as a destination well, for which she was thankful.

“Our TAG members pay courtesy visits to the appropriate high commissions and embassies to touch base with what we are doing in the industry but I guess governments put these in place to protect their own people,” Mrs Rounds-Ganilau said.

“I think it’s political and unrealistic but I concentrate on doing what I can with my ministries and how to move forward for Fiji so that all energies used are positive and focused.”

Mrs Rounds-Ganilau said the tourism industry needed more money to promote and market Fiji.

“We definitely need a healthier marketing and promotional budget and perhaps the lifting of the advisories as this was not in place last year if we are going to compare our goals to last year’s,” she said. “Other countries have amazing budgets and at this moment they use it against us in hosting promotions that entice tourists to other destinations than us.

“Low cost carriers do the same. But further to that I really feel we need to be more pro- active in looking after our tourism investors and in enticing them.

“We need to be more relaxed in our demands of them at startup stage as we know we will reap the benefits at completion and implementation stage. Being greedy puts a terrible strain on relationships between the investor and us.”

On the honeymoon market that the industry hopes will help pick up numbers by June, Mrs Rounds-Ganilau said: “I’ve been to a number of these hotel weddings with couples organising everything overseas and then coming here for the event.”

“Everything is done by the hotel with nobody worried about catering, decorating, who’s to do what and then we all stay overnight at the hotel and enjoy the total wedding celebration! It’s excellent by the beach with everything in place. I think that’s one of the wonderful ways to go for Fiji.”

Mrs Rounds-Ganilau said there were enough rooms to cater for demand.

However, she said there were new projects that were on hold, and which would ensure more accommodation and at various levels of quality.

So Fiji’s tourism sector should try to work with that before moving forward.

“We are also trying to entice the super yacht market and that brings in another level of guests and needs,” she said.

On her comments about sugar and how tourism could overtake this industry, Mrs Rounds-Ganilau said she preferred to talk about possible diversification.

“Surely we can make sugar-based confectionery with ginger, peanuts or whatever local produce we have to add value to sugar, and also our own brand of lethal rum!

“Pure Fiji have a sugar rub that is one of their popular lines so you don’t have to be a sugar farmer to diversify as was mentioned on television last week. Market it by value adding also and we’ll have a more sustainable industry involving more than just the farmers.”

She said average hotel occupancy was 30 – 40 per cent although some bigger properties she had visited in the last month were between 80 – 90 per cent full.

“Everyone has been well informed by the Minister of Finance of the current state of the economy.

“It is at a level that we are very wary of and which needs strategic decisions to be made quickly.  My ministry is adamant that the resilience of tourism is the only hope in the short term to recover the economy.”  She said the ministry’s major responsibility was to create a conducive environment for sustainable tourism growth and development.

“This means cooperating together in partnership: the ministry, the Fiji Visitors Bureau, the industry, stakeholder agencies and realigning our focus on recovery, as our businesses, industry and the livelihood of the people depend on it,” she said. “The immediate need is tourist numbers to fill hotels, spend in Fiji and restore employment that will trigger other induced effects in the economy.

“In the last three months we have seen the industry initiative of reviving the Tourism Action Group through the FVB, resulting in cruise shipping agencies working with Destination Suva and the Cruising Segment Task Force to lure cruise ships back to Fiji and the Suva Port.

“We have seen the airline and hotel industries organising concessions to get tourists to Fiji and this, combined with the FVB promotion campaigns have been wonderful, considering our present situation. We are fortunate, in that we are currently in the drafting stages of our Master Plan, so we are able to recast the plan to consider the current environment.

“The plan now factors in a recovery phase together with the business of growing the industry.”

The tourism sector knows what it wants but it is hampered by matters like the emergency decree, which foreign governments say is the reason for their negative travel advisories to the disadvantage of the industry and the economy.

With the parking of two Air Pacific aircraft last week because not enough tourists are not travelling to Fiji, the tourism industry is struggling to keep itself sweeter than sugar.

The Mole will be meeting wit the Interim Minister for Tourism during BFTE this week.

Report by The Moleform a report by Robert Matau in the Fiji Times