Fiji currently retains approximately 60 cents in a dollar from every dollar spent by tourists visiting our shores.

Economy Minister, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the tourism ministry is working on increasing that equation.

“One of the things about tourism is that you need to be able to see how much of the dollar being spent by the tourist is actually retained in the country. I think that is critically important because some countries retain as low as one percent. Obviously, they want to improve that equation. Other countries like India does 70-80 cents per dollar which is a lot better.”

The Asian Development Bank who works closely with Fiji in the tourism field, its President Takehiko Nakao believes technology can be a solution.

“If there are big international hotels chains and it’s managed by foreigners then not necessarily all income is retained in the country. So in that regard, Social Media really helps – because even if it is a local hotel it is still commercializing by advertising on social media.”

Fiji’s tourism revenues averaged $409.21 million from 2012 until 2019.