Tourism Fiji with its stakeholders will capitalise on growth in this large outbound market from China.

Last year we recorded a growth of 23.5 per cent of arrivals into Fiji with China as our fourth largest market.

Tourism Fiji chief executive officer Matthew Stoeckel said: “The Chinese market can behave differently compared to other markets in Fiji. We are also conscience that we need to deliver exceptionally on the ground for them.”

A great experience

He said a big part of that was ensuring that the Chinese visitor would have a great experience here.

“We cannot blame them with the safe destination and easy visa application process.

“World class hospitality, the happiest people on the planet, the huge variety of experiences as well, very rich, pristine environment and beautiful islands, it’s no wonder our product really resonates with the Chinese visitors,” he said.

“It’s hard to get around the opportunity for our market and also a market we are learning about.

“We are very well supported and we appreciate Rosie’s and other partners for organising charter flights, famils (a free or low cost trip for travel agents or consultants, provided by a travel wholesaler or airline as a means of promoting their service.), roadshows and to put in key people and partnerships such as what we have today.

“For Tourism Fiji, it is a market we are learning about.

“We are establishing our presence within it. The big push we are doing is establishing a .cn website Fiji, which sits behind the China firewall, which will be our first presence to ensure that we own the territory of our brand within the market.

“Through it, we have set up social media channels, where we doing social media listening to ensure that we have the right message to the market as well as a lot of consumer campaign to influence the Chinese population to come to Fiji.

Matai specialist training

The Fiji Matai Programme is a programme was created by Tourism Fiji to provide the international travel industry with the knowledge to sell Fiji.

A Matai specialist is someone who is knowledgeable about Fiji’s tourism products and can create an enhanced Fiji experience for your clients.

Mr Stoeckel said: “We are currently translating that specialist programme into the local language and sure we can communicate much stronger with the trade in China.

Working to grow the Fiji brand

“On top of that we will continue to work with other partners and media agencies in China and PR channels to really grow our presence and I think the opportunity ahead of the market is mind blowing.”

“(We) will work closely with Fliggy on ensuring our product distribution right across China.”.

Fliggy vice president Tony Duan said they needed to capitalise since only four per cent of the Chinese populations are passport holders.

“We have the confidence that the Chinese outbound travellers will benefit the Fijian economy and I also believe that through this co-operation we can find the new Blue Oceans for the Chinese markets.”

He said the Chinese market was booming.

Edited by Jonathan Bryce

Feedback:  waisean@fijisun.com.fj