Fiji’s cruise ship industry recorded a major growth with annual arrival quadrupling over the past eight years.

The International Finance Corporation assessment revealed that the Cruise Tourism raked in US$21.4m last year alone.

The study reveals more tourism to Fiji could lead to an added US$43.98m in the next decade.

Minister for Trade and Tourism Premila Kumar highlighted the massive growth experienced by the Cruise ship industry and its impact on the tourism industry at the launch of the report yesterday.

“For Fiji in 2018, we received a record of 187, 890 cruise passengers which are approximately a two-percent increase compared to 2017. In terms of the earnings from the cruise passengers, Fiji noted a record of $111.3m in 2018 as compared to $10.4m in 2017.”

IFC Operations and Tourism Officer Jessie McComb say with Fiji leading the tourism sector in the region, assessment report will provide a major economic growth for the country if some of its recommendations are considered.

“The cruise industry globally and in Fiji is really growing rapidly and there is a key opportunity for the Fijian tourism sector and the government to really benefit more from the cruise industry. The reason why we did this study, is because we’ve done this before in other Pacific Islands and we saw an opportunity to replicate the methodology here with a country that is a leader in tourism in the region.”

ATS Pacific General Manager Leigh Howard hopes Fiji is ready for an increase in tourist arrival in the future as new cruise ships will soon hit the water.

“We’re going to see now more frequent services coming to Fiji and essentially that will put Fiji on the Seven-day cruise program so we’ll see more ships, we’ll see bigger ships and also we’ll see multiple ships at the port at the same time.”

The total economic impact of cruise tourism in Fiji is estimated at $90.8m.