All tourism industry stakeholders will need to work harder as Fiji is now at a competitive level with other countries that also rely heavily on the sector.

Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association Chief Executive, Fantasha Lockington says the industry has come a long way post-COVID, but the competition is getting harder.

Lockington says Fiji has once again established its place as one of the top choices of holidays, but they can’t become complacent.

“You’ve got to keep working on what are your point differences. How can we make sure that we got our competitive edge going? So that is going to be the challenge going forward not just for tourism but I am sure for all businesses and industries. So the budget helps support the confidence that you can do things.”

The Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation has been allocated $52.3m in the new budget.

FHTA Fantasha Lockington.

Lockington says the stakeholders will be pleased that the government has not slapped them with more taxes in the budget.

“Tourism is a very compliant industry as the tax people will tell you. They do what they are supposed to do. But in all fairness, it needs to be made sure that if you bring in taxes they make sense, that you getting the support to make sure you can do more business to pay more taxes.”

The government has also made allocations for tourism-related development in Vanua Levu.