There are at least 53 tourism investment projects we are looking at, with a proposed investment value of $3.1 billion at different stages.
This has been confirmed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Tourism Viliame Gavoka while speaking during the Nadi Chamber of Commerce Business Forum where he says they are essentially looking at an additional 4,000 rooms that will support the additional seats.
He says tourism earnings for 2024 was $2.5 billion and Fiji Airways brings in another $2 billion in foreign exchange.
Gavoka says by 2027, their goal is to reach $4 billion with 1.25 million visitors.
He says in 2024, the tourism industry performed exceptionally, having received 1 million visitors by air and sea and that is what has been fueling the economy but they acknowledge as well that we should not take things for granted.
The Deputy Prime Minister says this year began at a slower pace in terms of visitor arrival numbers where in the first quarter (January to March), they recorded a decline of 5.3 percent.
Gavoka says there were a few reasons for this which include elections in Australia, US tariffs, and the increasing competition from cheaper destinations in Asia Pacific.
He says this is why they need to continuously be innovative, to accelerate investments, remove red tape and think long term on product differentiation.
The Deputy Prime Minister says the numbers took a dip early this year, the industry generally remained strong and yield was high.
He says the most recent numbers show that in April this year, they received 80,363 visitors.
This is 4 percent higher than April last year and about 26 percent higher than March and this is possibly the first time in history where April numbers have surpassed 80,000.
He adds forward bookings through July too are robust, and the pickup trend is also promising and their focus is on maintaining the numbers throughout the peak season.
