Hotels on the outskirts of the main islands are facing supply chain challenges.

Fiji Hotels and Tourism Association CEO Fantasha Lockington says the pandemic set this issue into motion, which was exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

Supply chain issues are a current global concern with businesses navigating through challenges including the pandemic, ongoing geopolitical concerns, climate change, and opposing trends of globalization and protectionism.

“So moving on from COVID, we already have a situation where our supply chains have been impacted. It was getting slower and slower to get stuff into the country. This has gotten only far worse in (compared) to the last 20–24 months. We’re seeing the impact in terms of what’s going out to the outer islands.”

Lockington adds that most of their members on Taveuni say there aren’t much of the materials that are being supplied to the island and this is affecting their service delivery.