On average 1, 200 visitors arrived daily when international borders reopened.[File Image]

The focus has now shifted to the peak tourism period which is usually around June onwards.

Tourism Fiji Chief Executive, Brent Hill says following a successful re-opening in December, they have learnt many lessons.

Hill says this will be applied in the months to come.

“We’ve been able to welcome tourists, get things up and running, get staff trained, get resorts going again and get Fiji out there to the rest of the world that people understand that you can come to Fiji.”

Hill says reopening the industry was the best decision made by the stakeholders that were led by the Government as they could not just wait around hoping for a miracle.

He says the goals that were set have been achieved but this did come with challenges and setbacks due to the pandemic.

“Obviously during this period, we have had the challenge with Omicron, with Australia being one of our key markets and Sydney being a key market within Australia. The number of cases there meant the number of tourists dropped because they simply couldn’t come to Fiji with Omicron.”

However, Hill says they now know what to expect when there is an influx of tourists, especially during the high season

On average 1, 200 visitors arrived daily when international borders reopened.

Fiji welcomed 36,000 visitors in December alone from travel partner countries.