2015 has been a ground breaking year for the InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort and Spa at Natadola.

Sales Director Hudson Mitchell said they had some amazing successes and business breakthroughs.

And they hosted for the second year, the PGA  (Australia) endorsed Fiji International, Golf

“That was very good for us to branch out into the sports tourism under the banner of golf,” he said.

“For us it was a very good year to diversify into our guest-source markets in the sense of being able to deliver more guests from a group’s perspective. We brought into the country a large number of Korean guests which was actually reflected in the visitor arrivals.”

He said for Korea it was seen as a spike but that was also seen as a direct contribution of their efforts to close a deal with the Korean business partners.

Other markets

One of their marketing strategies is to be more visible on the world arena as far as Fiji as a destination is concerned.

“We also managed to open up other markets successfully in 2015 where we managed to see some returns in our Asian markets in particular our Chinese markets with Chinese charter flights and of course with the support of tour managers at Rosie Holidays.

“We have been able to see an increase in our numbers out of these particular destinations. We have been able to sign off multiple contracts as preferred choice for five star quality international events. So we’ve had events from America, New Zealand, Australia and different parts of the world that guests have travelled to Fiji.”

Future plans

Mr Mitchell said the coming year is going to be another interesting year for them tapping some new markets with help from stakeholders such as Fiji Airways.

“We do have another opportunity with the Chinese New Year charters coming in  February. Also we have the Singapore leg coming in Fiji Airways flights.

He said they are looking forward to geting business out of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore as well, through this.

“As far as events are concerned we are looking at being a host property for multiple events  that are coming into Fiji. So it’s going to be an interesting  year for us. It’s going to be a year for opportunity  and increase the InterContinental experience for the InterContinental guests.

Challenges

“We have to be able to make sure that we are working with what we can as far as the airlines are concerned and also looking at groups matching that capacity.

“We faced this year for some of our groups the conversion for some of the groups numbers in the sense of seats.

“The number of seats available to convert bookings and bring them into Fiji. “We had some challenges with some groups out of North America  who we were unfortunately not able to convert.”

But with the growth and growth of Fiji Airways, capacity is increasing-and opportunities.

Feedback:  stella.moresio@fijisun.com.fj