The tourism industry is confident that it will achieve over  830,000 visitors and yield of $1.68 billion by the end of this year.

Speaking at the 2017 Tourism Fiji Industry Day at InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort and Spa at Natadola Bay yesterday, Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism, Faiyaz Koya said the industry was the largest contributor to the Fijian Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In 2016 its contribution to Fiji’s GDP was approximately 30 per cent; he added there had been a steady growth of visitors and numbers from this sector.

However, Mr Koya said it couldn’t rest on its laurels and it needed to rise up to the challenges by providing quality tourism in order to maintain success.

For the first quarter of this year, tourism earnings had increased by 10.7 per cent to $377.3 million, whilst visitor numbers increased by 3.3 per cent or 163,226.

Until September this year, Mr Koya said visitors have shown a 6.6 per cent (622,139) which was an increase compared to the same period last year.

“With just a month left for this calendar year, we are confident that we will achieve over 830,000 visitors and yield of $1.68 billion for 2017,” he added.

The Fijian Government’s vision, Mr Koya said was to focusing on quality tourism whether its accommodation or other tourism products by providing the best in return it should get the best in value for its services.

At the same time he added they didn’t want to compete with other destinations on numbers because they didn’t want our delicate ecosystem to be compromised.

Research has found, Mr Koya said that unsustainable tourism practices have led to the increased air pollution, land degradation, marine environment pollution and shortage of water resources.

“Therefore, for tourism to remain the number one industry, it needs to grow in a sustainable manner. In this regard, the Fijian Government is implementing a work programme geared towards sustainable practices in the Tourism industry,” he added.