SUVA (FBC News/Pacnews) — The Fiji tourism industry is witnessing a notable rise in the number of visitors arriving from China.
The Fiji Chinese Association attributes this increase to factors such as overpopulation and infrastructural development in the East Asian country.
The Fiji Chinese Association president, Jenny Seeto, said they are anticipating that a direct flight from Fiji to China and vice versa will accommodate easy travel.
“If we can get direct flights from say Beijing or Shanghai or one of these cities, we would do really well, there’s a lot of interest in Chinese tourists coming to Fiji. They like the cleanliness of the place and pristine environment because China is quite polluted as you know.”
Seeto said this development will also accommodate inter-cultural exchanges.
“The Chinese community would love to have direct flights, we go back to China all the time and currently we have to go via Hong Kong and if we have direct flights, we’ll see an influx of especially inbound tourism because at the moment Chinese tourists goes to Hong Kong and then comes to Fiji.”
Tourism Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Viliame Gavoka said the coalition government stands ready to provide the necessary assistance needed to penetrate the emerging Chinese market.
“It is indeed pleasing to note the continuing huge growth potential of inbound tourists from China. This is a market that our government is committed to support.”
In its August review, the Reserve Bank of Fiji stated that total occupancy rates and revenue earned from rooms sold up to July were higher than the same period in 2022 and 2019.
This positive trend is expected to continue in the coming months due to high forward bookings, increased flight capacity, and the introduction of new routes.
Meanwhile, maintaining Fiji’s pristine tourism environment is critical to ensuring that the momentum of the high tourist influx is maintained.
Tourism Fiji CEO Brent Hill is calling on stakeholders to work together to ensure this window of opportunity in the global tourism market is fully tapped.
Hill said maintaining a clean environment is the first small step to ensuring that the tourism industry beefs up our national coffers.
“So our opportunity to craft a plan structure for a tourism future that is sustainable and maintains what we’re famous for is important and so yes there is a National Sustainable Tourism Framework that the ministry is working on but you need to have real visionary thinking.”
The 10-year National Sustainable Tourism Framework aims to provide a roadmap to revitalize and enhance the Fijian tourism industry’s competitive positioning and anticipate future needs.
The formulation of the framework is led by a public-private steering committee that includes the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, tourism associations, and development partners.
