Australia donates AUS$12.25 million to Fiji as discussions continue regarding the travel bubble

The Australian government has donated AUS$12.25 million to Fiji as COVID-19 relief assistance and discussions are continuing between Fiji, Australia, and New Zealand regarding the travel bubble.

This has been confirmed by the Attorney General and Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum who says that he has been in talks with respective ministries of Australia and New Zealand and are looking forward to working with them.

However, Sayed-Khaiyum says there is a lot of work yet to do regarding this and they still need a bit of time to do so. He says COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the tourism sector and there is a need to get the sector back on.

The Attorney General says due to this, Fiji's tourism sector is completely dismantled.

Sayed-Khaiyum says it is important to note how we can re-engineer the tourism market going forward in terms of what types of products we can offer, what types of specials we can offer and the prices of food and beverages.

Australia’s High Commissioner to Fiji, John Feakes says there is no time given to this potential travel bubble because they are still working with New Zealand regarding this and it will take some time before an agreement is reached.

Feakes says there are still active COVID-19 cases in the three countries and the health of the Australians, Fijians and the New Zealanders will be first priority before a Trans-Tasman travel is looked into.