The tourism industry will meet the Government this afternoon to discuss the 5 percent Tourism Services Tax following calls by the Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association to honour the assurance given to the tourism industry during consultation and exempt bookings that were made and paid for before the 5 percent tax was announced.
This has been confirmed by Minister for Finance Esrom Immanuel while responding to questions by fijivillage News.
Meanwhile, Association CEO Fantasha Lockington has rejected the Government's claims of delay and sabotage, saying the statement itself does not hold up where it matters most.
Lockington says members are already dealing with the practical fallout, including at least one confirmed case of a multi-room group booking cancelling and rebooking to another destination directly because of the added charge on an existing booking.
Lockington says this outcome ultimately works against Fiji Airways the tax is meant to support.
She says every cancelled booking is a passenger who was going to fly Fiji Airways to get here, and now will not.
Lockington stresses they want Fiji Airways to succeed, but applying this tax retrospectively to bookings that were already locked in gives visitors a reason to cancel rather than a reason to fly here.
She says that helps no one, least of all the airline.
Lockington reiterates that they are not calling for this tax to be scrapped, however, their request is narrower and, it believes, entirely reasonable.
The CEO says visitors who plan a holiday in good faith, under one set of rules, should not have those rules changed on them after the fact.
She says they support what Government is trying to do for Fiji Airways.
Lockington says they are simply asking the Government to keep its word on how this would apply to people who had already booked their holiday and that is not too much to ask.
Lockington further says that the Association supports Fiji Airways as the industry has a direct interest in the airline's success; its connectivity is the gateway through which almost every visitor reaches our shores, and the Association has never argued against Government's right to support it or the industry’s willingness to support it.
She says what they cannot accept is the way this particular measure has been implemented, in particular its impact on visitors who had already booked and paid for a Fiji holiday before this tax was ever announced, and who are now being asked to pay an additional 5 percent they had no way of anticipating.
She says during consultation, the Association specifically sought assurance that existing bookings, already contracted and in many cases already paid in full, would be exempt from the new levy, consistent with how the previous Service Turnover Tax treated pre-existing bookings when it was introduced.
Lockington says that assurance was provided, then overturned in the final legislation and guidance without explanation.
She says put yourself in the position of a family in Australia or New Zealand who booked and paid for their Fiji holiday eight months ago.
Lockington says they budgeted for a set price, in good faith, based on the rules that existed at the time but they now arrive to find an unexpected charge added to their bill, for a tax that did not exist when they booked.
The CEO says this is not a debate about whether Fiji Airways deserves support but about the Government going back on what it told this industry it would do and then refused to provide the consumer fairness the tax called for.
She further says the Government’s statement leans heavily on the claim that tourism contributes only around 5 percent of corporate tax collected nationally, as if this were evidence the industry doesn’t pull its weight.
Lockington says that argument does not stand up to scrutiny as corporate tax is a tax on profit, and profit is not the same thing as contribution.
She says the Government’s own statement acknowledges, in the same breath, that tourism generates approximately 40 percent of Fiji’s economic activity and nearly $3 billion in foreign exchange earnings annually—figures that say far more about what this industry delivers than a single tax line ever could.
She highlights that by contrast, billions have been sunk into the sugar industry over decades with far less return, while tourism has consistently delivered growth, jobs, and foreign exchange without comparable subsidies.
Lockington says the Government has also spent years granting tourism tax holidays of significant length specifically to attract the very investment that has produced that 40 percent.
The CEO says citing the resulting lower tax take as proof the industry underperforms, after actively designing the tax settings that produced it, is not a credible argument and the more useful question is what that says about margins and profitability across the sector, not about tourism's contribution to Fiji.
The Association has also clarified its position in light of recent public commentary attributed to the Tourism Action Group, which has publicly expressed support for the 5 percent tax.
Lockington says they withdrew its membership from Tourism Action Group on 4th July 2026, following Government's undue influence over committee operations and a shift in TAG's direction away from independent, whole-of-industry representation.
She says they are no longer a member of Group in any capacity, and the Group's positions do not reflect Association's views.
Lockington adds based on the Hotel Licensing List as at December 2025, the Association's accommodation members represent 70 percent of licensed room inventories in Fiji, with over 80 percent of the total tourism support and supply chain networks that effectively make the Association the representative voice for the clear majority of the country's tourism industry.
