Tourism earnings for the first quarter of 2017 increased to $377.3 million, whilst visitor numbers increased by 163,226.

This was revealed by the Minister for Tourism, Faiyaz Koya during the 2017 Tourism Fiji Industry Day.

Koya says the present facts and figures on the ground shows that the industry is in a healthy position.

He says the tourism industry is the largest contributor to the Fijian GDP and last year this contribution was approximately 30 percent.

Koya also highlighted that until September 2017 there has been a 6.6 percent increase in visitor arrivals compared to the same period last year.

He says that the purpose of Industry Day is to outline Tourism Fiji’s marketing plans and strategies for the coming year and it also provides a platform to discuss, clarify and identify areas of partnership to implement the marketing plans, going forward.

Koya adds they are confident to achieve over 830,000 visitors and yield of $1.68 billion for this year.