The Mole speaks with the Fiji tourism industry

With the coup of December 5 becoming a more distant memory every day and Fiji now clearly in “business as usual mode”, The Mole took the opportunity of discussing the current state of the industry and prospects for the future with some industry leaders and resort operators.

In this first report The Mole speaks with Aaron McGrath of Sonaisali Island Resort told The Mole that the year was going very well considering what the industry had gone through and it has clearly been a difficult year.

He added that BFTE had been a very important one for Sonaisali this year to touch base with key wholesale partners and to really get a handle on where the trade is really at and it has been a very pleasant surprise indeed that the trade are really upbeat and very positive and there’s talk of some very significant air campaigns being released shortly both in the Australia and New Zealand markets which are going to provide great stimulus for Fiji.

He said that the resorts are still out there with very highly discounted price points and that will cause some difficulties for Fiji in the long term, I think that there are fantastic specials available through the high season and I think that we are on the right track.

Aaron added though that it may well be difficult down the track to get t rates back to what they are worth and to an economically viable level for operators of hotels and resorts and the issue of keeping yields down now means that to recover tourism we are now talking about at the earliest, July 2008.

This is because we will go out of this high season into another low period and we are going to have to deal with that, so we will need to see how that transpires.

A lot of the deals now are going through to 31 March 2008, which is the end of our wholesale contracting period, so obviously we are not going to be turning around in April and throwing our rates up in the middle of a low period.

So, it is going to be challenging and you will see awesome deals in the Fiji market for at least the next 12 months.

Sonaisali for the first four months of this year has run at around the 70% occupancy mark, so we have done very well, considerably higher than the industry average and having started out with the TAG 40% discount, in the beginning of April, we moved to a more yield based rate structure and we are now running on that and while we have had a good April May is going to be a very tough month for us.  I would say that Sonaisali will end up doing about 55% for May and while that is a lot better than many others at 55% that is tough!

Remember that we are talking at discounted rates and our forwards are not good.

Generally in terms of where our business comes from, Australia and New Zealand have not fired up as we would have liked them to and there are lots of reasons for that, but going into high season and with some coordinated tactical marketing campaigns, I think we will see that turn around.

The surprise is that some of our northern hemisphere markets have been very resilient and in particular the UK and USA, so we are very happy about, but unfortunately the volume base is out of Australia and New Zealand and that is why we are hurting so much at the moment.

I would like to say to the trade in Australia and New Zealand that we need your support and let’s get going with the tactical campaigns that are coming up very soon and I think that Fiji will do well, but not just because of the great deals, but also that the other Pacific Islands that have offered great deals will also be looking for yield and with Fiji with great deals out there, you will see the difference and begin to see some volume come to Fiji.

And finally please put out of your minds any concerns that Fiji is not safe to visit – Fiji is totally safe.

An interview by The Mole with Aaron McGrath, of Sonaisali Island Resort