Visitor spending has surpassed $3.55 billion and the visitor economy is now valued at $2 billion.

Tourism Fiji chief executive officer Brent Hill revealed this during the Fijian Tourism Expo 2023 at the Sheraton Fiji Golf and Beach Resort on Denarau Island.

He said trends indicated that the average length of stay had gone up to 9.7 nights and visitors’ satisfaction rates soared to 93 per cent.

More than 900,000 visitors arrived in Fiji since the re-opening of borders in December, 2021.

“The one millionth tourist is expected to arrive in late May or early June.”

“The tourism industry is experiencing a boost in investments with new properties underway and several major announcements expected soon,” he said.

“The strong re-opening of China and Japan and the opening of Canberra with two weekly flights starting in July.”

“From August, there are plans to have three and four weekly flights to Hong Kong from August and September respectively.”

Mr Hill said the significance of sustainable growth was to attain the objective of receiving 760,231 visitors and achieving a visitor economy worth $2.35 billion by the end of the year.

Hotel Booking
The hotel bookings have hit a new level with an average daily rate of $819.

Mr Hill said the latest reports showed that occupancy rates and average daily rates had exceeded 2019 levels and held a strong return to the industry.

“We are also seeing a significant increase in travelers coming in for holiday reasons and an increase in film production and PR opportunities.”

Mr Hill said the local tourism sector was thriving and expanding with the country having more development opportunities in various sectors which included sports tourism, transit, luxury, surf and diving, and the meeting and conference sector.

Fiji Airways spent $50 million on marketing.

The national airline spends around $50 million on marketing Fiji alone.

Fiji Airways executive manager Digital Channels and Tourism Partnerships, Akuila Batiweti said: “We’re about 50 per cent of all foreign currency to the country comes through us.”

“And in 2019 there was about $1.1 billion and this year we’re on target between $1.5 to $1.6 billion in revenue with 95 per cent of that being foreign currencies.”

“Right now, afford bookings on capacity alone capacity, the number of seats we fly into a market.

“We flew about 130 per cent more than we did in 2023 and that’s 130 per cent without Hong Kong open, without Japan open, so that was without Asia.”

“We were able to fly 130 per cent more than in 2019.” he said.

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