The tourism industry in Fiji had been challenged by two special external issues, Tourism Fiji’s chief executive said yesterday.

Matthew Stoeckel told the Tourism Fiji Industry Day at the InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort and Spa the challenges were:

n Internationl worries about the threat from the mosquito-born virus Zika leading to some tourists to holiday at home.

n Competition from Bali, the popular low-cost Indonesian tourism destination

“Some of the resorts have let me know that they have seen the cancellation of bookings of more than $250,000 this year from Zika Virus. These are just the cancellations of tickets that we are directly aware of,” Mr Stoeckel said.

He said this was something that Tourism Fiji was working on with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism as well as the Ministry of Health to improve their communication.

“At the moment we have visitors looking for information about Zika,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Stoeckel said Bali was an increasing competition for Fiji.

But he said it was also interesting to know market shares for the South Pacific had remained steady for the past five years so Fiji was not losing market share in the South Pacific.

“If we continue on how we’re tracking till date, we will also end up with having another record year for visitor arrivals for 2016.”

With the target of $2.2 billion in yield by 2020 set for the industry Mr Stoeckel has reminded industry, stakeholders that it was not just about the number of people coming to Fiji but would also how long they stay and how much they spend.

Edited by Rusiate Mataika