A USA-based travel agent says it becomes a lot easier to market Fiji as a tourist destination to those who have been to Fiji at least once.

Myriad Travel Marketing President/chief executive, Al Merschen, says this is because these visitors become convinced Fiji is a great destination after visiting it once.

However, Mr Merschen stressed it was a very competitive market and there are new destinations every day going into the US market.

“But overall, Fiji has a positive reputation that I think is growing. Fiji Airways is adding flights out of San Francisco and I think that is indicative that the market is interested in going to Fiji,” he said.

Mr Merschen is here attending the Communications Summit organised by Tourism Fiji which began yesterday and ends on Friday.

The Communications Summit aims to maximise the efficiency of Tourism Fiji’s communications – public relations and social media – strategies, as well as add value to existing efforts to market Fiji as an ideal leisure and business travel destination in 2016.

Tourism Fiji has brought together representatives from its global PR and Social Media Agencies based in Australia, China, and North America to attend the week-long Summit.

Focus and challenges

Mr Merschen emphasised they focus a lot of their work in the West Coast of US which is mainly California because of the direct flight by Fiji Airways out of Los Angeles.

“Destination as Australia is very strong too. So there are a lot of people who will add Fiji as part of their South Pacific destination and so the combination of the two works really well,” he said.

But, he said every destination has their challenges.

“I think everybody is looking for new product but they are also looking for the tried and true products and I of our discussion during the summit is about social media,” he said.

“I think it is important everybody gets involved in the pride of Fiji. Sometimes when we get here, we feel the pride of Fiji, but nowadays, you need to get it out on the social media too so everybody can feel.

“So the locals, hotels and stakeholders post on their feel of Fiji and experiences – the more visitors we will have.”

California alone is a population of 44 million and Mr Merschen believes Fiji needs to be able to attract only a small portion from here and our tourism industry will be in a good shape.