The tourism sector entered the New Year with mixed expectations due to projections of subdued growth in major source markets, Australia and New Zealand.

Westpac Senior Economist Shamal Chand says however, the sector has shown incredible resilience by receiving a record number of 194,391 visitors within the first quarter of 2024, a 10.9 percent growth compared to the same period in 2022.

Chand says this has rejuvenated excitement around the tourism industry.

He states that despite February being the slowest month for tourism activity, total visitor arrivals grew by 15.9 percent, mainly led by arrivals from non-traditional source markets.

Similarly, March saw a 14.5 percent increase in arrivals.

Chand highlights that as Fiji moves into the peak tourism season in the coming months, we are yet to witness any major impact of the slowdown in source markets on the number of arrivals to our shores.

The declining number of Australian visitors during the previous three consecutive months (-2.1% in Dec 2023; -7.0% in Jan 2024; -1.3% in Feb 2024) was undone by a 10.5 percent growth in March, resulting in a modest first quarter growth of 0.2 percent.

Chand says during 2022 and the early months of 2023, Australian travellers had limited options to travel since restrictions were still being lifted in most countries, which helped Fiji being the first mover to capture a larger portion from there.

As full recovery has been completed, the share of visitor arrivals from
Australia is expected to normalize to historical levels.

Fiji’s tourism sector completed its recovery in 2023, with visitor arrivals reaching 929,740, marking a 46.1 percent increase compared to 2021 and 4.0 percent growth compared to 2019 (pre-pandemic).

Consequently, Chand says tourism earnings reached over $2b in 2023, which were up by 57.9 percent compared to 2022 and 14.6 percent compared to 2019 (pre-pandemic).

He says the higher tourism earnings in 2023 were not only the result of a record number of arrivals but also the historical average per-diem spending reaching over $2,500 per tourist.

This year, Chand says Fiji expects visitor arrivals to grow by four percent, taking into factors such as arrivals to date and the anticipated slowdown in major tourism source markets.

Based on the current trajectory, total visitor arrival is expected to reach a million mark by 2025.

He says with a number of hotel and resort accommodation projects announced and growth in local Airbnb properties picking up, Fiji is well-positioned to receive and accommodate a million tourists in the next two years.