Is business to Fiji good or bad?
Those of you who know Andrew Turnbull, [pictured right] Sydney based owner of stunning Tokoriki Island Resort, will know that he is a pretty plain speaker calling a spade very much a spade or even a shovel!
So, when The Mole asked Andrew what the tourism business was really like, he uttered a few expletives generally meaning that business was not very good at all and in fact, he subsequently confirmed that business looking forward was pretty dismal.
Andrew told The Mole that Christmas and early to mid January had been great, with regular clients and people that had already booked still visiting, but that then the post coup decline set in, with business picking up again with regular clients again visiting over Easter with April great.
He added though that even though that Tokoriki has a free food offer to the end of the month, May has not been not so good and forward bookings are looking very poor indeed, with a very concerning last minute booking trend beginning to emerge.
Tokoriki fully supported the TAG initiative but did not discount their prices as other properties did, preferring to offer free food on all bookings to the end of May 2007.
Nevertheless, while he believes that Tokoriki has done much better than many other resorts, he made it clear that business is not good and that they, along with he believes all other resorts are suffering, with island reports actually doing better than the mainland.
He also said that whole of Fijian tourism industry need the immediate support of the Fiji Government and operators in Australia and New Zealand and in particular the lifting of the emergency conditions in Fiji, which will then subsequently enable the lifting of the travel advisories to Fiji from Australia and New Zealand to Fiji.
He said that it was not difficult to work out that with many resorts offering 40% discounts and other incentives and still only achieving occupancies in the region of 50% or lower, yields and revenue were way down and that was a picture that was not financially sustainable for many.
A special report by The Mole on location in Fiji
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