Fiji has the potential to reach a million visitor arrivals per year, but there is a need for evidence-based research to drive what Fiji does in tourism.

This was the view of Fiji’s High Commissioner to Australia, Yogesh Punja, who was speaking during the tripartite gathering of the Fiji-Australia-New Zealand Business Councils at The Pearl yesterday.

He said for this, we need to know where the growth is, how we tap into these markets and what we have to do to attract new tourists from new source markets to Fiji.

“We need to have a competitive mindset, and use our competitive advantages as best as we can to grow the industry,” he said.

“Importantly, we need to continue to develop new tourism products which our customers and we-would be customers want.

“And then we need to increase investments when this investment is needed to develop those products. We also need to enhance on our focus on the customers.”

Mr Punja further the need to increase the average daily spend per tourist in Fiji.

“Fiji needs to continue to grow its market share, have a globally competitive industry,” he said.

“We need to get higher yields per tourist and have an environmentally-sustainable industry which is flourishing and profitable for Fiji and Fijians.

Mr Punja added ultimately they want the tourists to have a favourable predisposition for Fiji and that will mean they will holiday more frequently in Fiji and spend more money while they visit.

“We need to continue to innovate with our infrastructure development, skills development and service delivery standards,” he added.

“This is done through private public partnerships or simply with effective coordination between the public and private sectors in Fiji.

Mr Punja further said it is also a need to ensure we have effective policies to continue to attract foreign direct investment into infrastructure projects, and the tourism sector.

“We all know that the flow of capital knows no international borders or time zones and Fiji needs to remain an attractive place to invest or it risks losing the flow of capital to our competitors,” he said.

Edited by: RACHNA LAL

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