Tourism Fiji’s ‘Love Your Locals’ campaign is facing room supply constraints as high post-pandemic demand from overseas tourists fills hotel capacity.

Chief Executive Dr. Paresh Pant says that hotels are currently struggling to cater to the local demand due to this influx.

Room shortages have been a major hindrance in accommodating the pent-up demand in the tourism industry post-COVID.

“I think digitally it is still ongoing. We, as I said, as we’re trying to, we’ve got the supply side challenges as well. Several hotel rooms are offline at the moment. And once they come online, then I think there will be space for greater opportunities to engage with that love the locals process.”

Dr. Paresh Pant

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Tourism, Viliame Gavoka, also highlighted that accommodation remains a challenge for the industry.

“But, the challenge now is that when the demand is high, we run out of rooms. And, you know, as you see, we have added. And as we know, there is a mismatch between the airline inventory, the number of seats, and the rooms on the ground. So, that in many ways limits our growth, because people can’t travel.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Tourism, Viliame Gavoka

Gavoka adds that while Fiji benefited strongly from “pent-up demand” following the reopening of borders, that period is slowly fading as global competition has increased.

He adds that for the Ministry, they want to make sure that the resources are always made available to Tourism Fiji, because the funding the marketing of Tourism Fiji by the ministry.

To address the issues, the government is actively diversifying interest in local tourism and encouraging the construction of new accommodation, not only hotels, but also community tourism projects and Airbnb-style options to cater to the different needs in the sector.

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