Q1. Fiji Visitors
Bureau is in charge of branding Fiji abroad but
we recently read that the Minister for Tourism said
there was "a need for FVB to re-look at their
functions and contributions to the nation".
Could you enlighten us on this issue?
A1. We would like our core function to be primarily
marketing Fiji Overseas, we understand that this
is our role. The Act under which we operate is worked
in a way that we can do almost anything, like programs
in Fiji on tourism awareness. If we are involved
in all sorts of tourism issues in the country we
cannot focus all we would like to in a quality marketing
of Fiji Overseas. We are now dealing with tourism
awareness in the country, with educational programmes,
with antilitter campaigns, providing information
in Fiji, etc. We cannot be doing everything about
tourism, we want to be focused on bringing people
into the country. What the Minister was saying is
that we need to re-look at the core functions of
the Bureau. We are looking at focusing primarily
on marketing. We have an office in Suva providing
information for Suva, we have another office in
Nadi meeting the people that arrives to the country
and that is the airport's responsibility, not our
responsibility. I have people there saying "Welcome
to Fiji" on a 24 hour basis, that is the responsibility
of the city council. Our core functions are being
redirected so that our efforts are focused more
on bringing tourists into Fiji.
Q2. "Towards a billion dollar industry"
is the theme of the last Tourism National Summit.
FVB's efforts are not just branding Fiji abroad
but we have seen some in-house work like the national
campaign "Bula spirit". What are your
plans to achieve such a task?
A2. There are two elements we should observe
at this point. The First one is that we are preparing
the world for Fiji and the second one is that we
are preparing Fiji for the world. The "Bula
Spirit" is to prepare ourselves for the world
that is coming to visit us. We have to be able to
deliver the dreams that we normally promise overseas,
this is the bottom line of the program. It is working
quite well, my nine year old kid can understand
it and that is good because the main target was
children, the Fiji's future main asset. We basically
worked on Primary Schools and Secondary Schools
but we have also worked with other sectors of the
society because there is another impact of the tourism
growth. If we look at tourism at this point, it
is primarily focused on the Western Part of the
country, Nadi, The Mamanuca Islands, The Yasawas,
etc. Our challenge is to convince the whole country
of the benefits that everyone can get out of this
kind of industry. We held the Tourism National Summit
in Savu-Savu, in the island of Vanua Levu, because
there is a huge potential over there. From there
you can go to Lomaiviti, the Lau Group or the northern
part of Tailevu. But as we start developing that
area we want to make sure that the domestic population
is fully receptive towards tourism. At the some
time we have to bear in mind that the population
is very attached to their environment, they believe
they are part of it, something you also find in
other parts of the Pacific and Asia. A lot of them
are very concerned with the eco-system and they
want to make sure that whatever comes in fits into
the way they do things as opposes to developments
coming in and taking over totally. I think that
for the long term this is healthy for the country.
Q3. What would be your advice for foreign investors
who want to come in those areas and develop the
tourism industry?
A3. The people in those areas are way receptive.
We want partnerships, not only financially but also
with the eco-system. We want people understanding
the culture and the local traditions. When you go
around Fiji you notice that all the developments
are out in rural areas. Beqa island, Musket Cove,
etc. are out in the villages and that is remarkable
because to make that happen there is a very strong
partnership between the investor and the rural community.
If you go to Suva, the business capital of the country,
you can see that there are not many hotels, it is
the urban area where other things are better developed.
Tourism is out in the rural areas and this is very
unique.
Q4. You are branding Fiji as "The truly
relaxing tropical getaway", Why?
A4. If we go back in time a little bit we will
be aware of what we have done. We have done a global
research on December 1999 and we tried to understand
what motivates people to travel to Fiji. We studied
the markets of US, Europe and UK and also Australia,
New Zealand, etc. When you say "Fiji",
it brings up an exotic image in some parts of the
world but in Australia and New Zealand this exotic
attribute is not present so therefore we could not
use "exotic" as the main quality in our
strategy. One word that continued to fit in all
the markets was "relaxation". This was
developed back in year 2000 but at the moment, with
all that is happening around the world, there is
a lot of uncertainty and true relaxation is what
people is looking for when they go on holidays and
that they will find if they come to Fiji. Therefore,
this will continue to be our brand.
Q5. Tourism will probably lead Fiji's economy in
the future. We have seen there is a debate in the
sector: Fiji needs more tourists vs. Fiji needs
to attract more top end of the sector Tourists,
what is your opinion?
A5. We at FVB are not looking so much at the
number or the type of tourists but more at the length
of stay. We have already attracted people to be
here and stay another day and the impact of that
is huge for the industry and this is how we will
be able to reach the "billion-dollar"
industry. But first of all, we do not have the capacity
during the high seasons and that is one of the challenges,
to increase the capacity for certain times of the
year. But instead of focusing too much on the numbers
of visitor arrivals we must focus on the length
of stay, because if you have 400,000 visitors a
year with a current length of stay of about 4 days
you get extra revenue close to 200 million by just
increasing the length of stay one more day. There
are other obstacles to this and it is that they
cannot stay an extra day because there are no flights
the next day. This problem, with Air Pacific's new
capacity increase for our major markets, will disappear
and that would be possible.
Q6. If we compare Fiji to other destinations
we see that other destinations have done better
in the past, like Bali. How do you explain this
and what are your plans to change the situation?
A6. Some 16 years ago, there were more Australians
visiting Fiji than Bali but then Bali went on a
strong campaign and now they have about 4 times
more visitors and the growth in capacity has been
spectacular. Bali made the choice to increase tremendously
the number of rooms, if we had done this at that
time we would be in a different situation right
now. Our growth target will not be realized if we
do not grow inventory. From around June to October,
we cannot get any rooms in those places. Fiji has
the potential and the capacity to grow but we need
to be a little bit cautious sometimes as the resources
are limited. We need to grow in Human Resources
and in infrastructure but prioritizing on what to
put emphasis on. But now the whole concept is changing
quite dramatically. Now tourism is the savior of
the nation. Looking at the way government is going
about it, extremely motivating hotel projects, etc.
Recently the government certified a loan of the
European Development Bank for a Hotel investment
project, it is the first time in Fiji's tourism
history that a guarantee has been discussed and
approved in parliament for a hotel project and to
me that is a very positive step. It is a sign that
this government is putting its weight behind developing
projects instead of waiting for the private sector
to do everything. It is what we have all been wanting
all this time. |
Q7. How is the Tourism
sector in Fiji related to this government's "Look
North Policy"?
A7. In tourism, it is always good to increase
your portfolio of visitors. China and India are
particularly interesting markets for us. We are
making efforts with these countries because as Australia
and New Zealand are also there, it helps that we
piggyback on what they do in those two emerging
markets. It is always a chicken and egg situation.
People say that Chinese and Indians are different
markets, that they look for other things like better
shopping, casinos and all that but same thing was
said about the Japanese and the Koreans and they
already come to Fiji. As soon as the number of visitors
from those countries grew in Fiji the people here
were able to provide facilities for them. Fiji people
can quickly adapt themselves to everything. I have
a lot of faith that Fiji will put up facilities
to suit the Chinese when they start arriving as
we have already done with the Japanese and the Koreans.
We have a hospitable population and if you need
Chinese interpreters you can find a lot of Mandarin
speaking people here and with the Indian community
there would be not a problem. The Indian television
divulged a lot of information on the coup and later
on we made a survey to see who would want to go
to Fiji. They said they would only spend two days
here but once they came here and saw the cultural
links they stayed longer. But right now, Fiji is
very much part of the Australia and New Zealand
trip even though we have a lot more to offer.
Q8. Diversification is a key word for the future
economy of Fiji. Tourism is more diversified than
what people might think, Fiji is more than just
sun and sea, right?
A8. Exactly. People tend to think of Fiji as
just sun, sand and sea. We have tried to add more
to that whilst we have to look for other areas.
Eco tourism is very much a core part of our business.
Fiji offers the sort of adventure type holidays
and our goal is focused a lot in the UK market.
The backpackers industry in Fiji has grown to about
$45 million FJD this year. Five years ago it was
only around two to three million FJD. I would say
that $45 million FJD is still a conservative figure
considering the potential of the backpackers industry
but it is not a bad figure if we consider that five
years ago it was virtually nonexistent. There is
a company in the eco-tourism in Fiji "Fiji
Experience" that make tours all around Fiji.
There are companies that have developed and other
that are growing. The diversification is not coming
only from the government but also from people in
Fiji who are active and that entrepreneurship is
very satisfying to see. It became a niche five years
ago and the industry moved from 12 operators to
about 100 now. The evolution of the internet has
contributed a lot to this growth as before, Fiji
was not available and now it is at a "click"
distance.
Q9. The need to increase investments was one
of the resolutions in the tourism summit in Savu-Savu.
What's your message to our foreign readership
about the Fiji Islands as a tourism investment
destination?
A9. Tourism is now 40 years old in Fiji. We
started in 1961 and we have had 41 years of learning,
making mistakes, setting up, etc. Fiji is now ready
to be launched into space. I believe that the platform
has been set in this 41 years. We have had our coups,
cyclones, flooding, etc but we had 41 years of learning.
It is the right time to come and put some money
on the ground. My message is "Do it now, the
time is now!". The spaceship is there and all
it needs is the fuel to take off.
Q10. Last October 2nd you launched in Australia
the Matai Islands Specialist Program designed
to increase awareness about the sites in the Islands.
What is the Matai Islands Specialist Program?
A10. Matai means "know it all". One
of the problems you find in abroad when people sell
Fiji is that the agencies choose Fiji is the first
overseas destination that a trainee sell. Someone
who is coming from high school into college is thrown
into a traveling agency and the knowledge that they
have is quite little. They select certain key destinations
but they cannot develop other segments. With the
Matai we want them to be experts about Fiji. The
type of knowledge we want the Matai to have is how
long does it take to go from Suva to Yanuca Island,
how can I get there, what will I find there, details
like that. We are also trying to have the tourist
expanding the length of stay because the Matai will
be able to convince the potential client to spend
another more day in Fiji. There are 4,000 travel
agents in Australia but we have focused in 200 where
most of the visitors come from. When we had our
problems back in the year 2000, we had started with
the Matai in the US market. When nobody else was
sending visitors to Fiji, the Matai would continue
to send visitors to Fiji because they knew Fiji,
they knew that the situation was safe and fine.
They knew that there were some small problems in
Suva but nothing in the West and other areas. This
is what we are trying to do in Australia, we will
continue with New Zealand and early 2003/2004 with
UK and Europe. Japan and Korea are the next ones
to be considered.
Q11. After the events of May 2000, what was
the contribution of the Tourism industry to change
the perception of Fiji abroad?
A11. Tourism is very resilient. It is an amazing
industry. I was in London early this month in a
tourism industry event. There are very bad things
in the world nowadays but tourism does not believe
in that. Tourism is just tourism. You bring out
the best of your people. In countries with problems,
the tourism is the best way to go beyond troubles.
Tourism is a link between people from all over the
world. Two coups in 1987 and another one in 2000.
No one can destroy the tourism because it appeals
to the essence of mankind and tourism knows no boundaries.
When you go to a country you bring the best of your
country and receive the best of the place you visit.
Fiji is fortunate to have tourism playing a vital
role of the economy. That has helped in a big way
after the coup. We have shown to the people of Fiji
that all these problems shall be resolved by us
because this country is linked to the global community
and in two years we are already seeing the positive
results. I believe in the goodness of people and
that has been very important to achieve this.
Winne cannot be held responsible for unedited
transcription.
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MR VILIAME
GAVOKA 