[Source: Fijian Government/ Facebook]

President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere believes the next great challenge in the tourism industry is to set it on a more sustainable path of growth.

While opening the Fijian Tourism Expo at the Sheraton Fiji Resort last night, Ratu Wiliame says since borders have opened, the country has welcomed thousands of holidaymakers from Australia, the US, and more recently, New Zealand.

Ratu Wiliame says this is an indication that Fiji is truly open for business and we stayed true to our vision and revived this industry together; returning our people to the jobs they love.

“As we head into the peak of our tourism season, the forward booking numbers for Fiji for this month through to July and beyond are looking extremely positive. And we continue to hear from our trade partners that Fiji is the ‘hottest’ destination of the year. When I hear that, I think of more jobs for our people. And I feel confident that our entire tourism industry is more than ready to keep this recovery going strong and share our beautiful home with our friends around the world. “

The President says that Fiji has come a long way ever since making that difficult decision to reopen the borders last year.

Ratu Wiliame highlighted that thanks to a successful Open for Happiness campaign, Fiji put a global spotlight on reopening and, 20 million video views later, the campaign was a huge reason why our island became the most coveted destination in 2022.

He further states that our national carrier, Fiji Airways, deserves full marks for putting Fiji on the map as one of the safest travel destinations in the world through its award-winning onboard safety campaign.

“I will never forget the optimism I felt seeing the images of the first Fiji Airways flight carrying the precious cargo of life-saving COVID-19 vaccines. From that first flight of hope to the many that followed; from the heroic effort to vaccinate our people across over 100 populated islands to the first tourist flight last year, we earned our way to become the number one destination in tourism readiness in the entire Asia Pacific Region.”

Ratu Wiliame adds that the collective effort that Fijians committed together showed our rock-solid strength, and the evidence of our success is all around us.