[Source: TheSmartLocal and eventsfiji]

The tourism sector was boosted with a record number of visitors arriving to our shores last year compared to 2017.

The Fiji Bureau of Statistics has confirmed our annual visitor arrivals reached a new high of more than 870,000 last year.

This was 3.3% more visitors than the previous record of less than 843,000 which arrived in 2017.

Fiji received the majority number of visitors from New Zealand, Japan, USA, Continental Europe, Asia, Canada, China and other countries.

Japan recorded the highest percentage increase of 87% due to the recommencement of direct flights between Nadi and Narita three times a week.

Monthly visitor numbers topped the 95,000 mark for the first time ever in July with 95,061 arrivals.

Visitors from New Zealand and USA were also the highest ever in a given year.

The number of visitors from Fiji’s top two source markets – Australia and New Zealand equate to average daily arrivals of 1002 and 544 respectively.

Over 658,000 arrivals came for holiday purposes, over 80,000 came to visit friends or relatives, over 29,000 came for business purposes while more than 101,000 visited Fiji for other reasons.