Hotel occupancy rates have averaged approximately 55%

Tourism Minister Faiyaz Koya says hotel occupancy rates have averaged approximately 55%  when historically off-peak seasons have recorded average occupancy rates of about 30%.

While speaking in parliament, Koya says since its launch in June as part of their market re-entry strategy, the “Love Our Locals” campaign has been incredibly successful both for participating businesses as well as the locals.

Koya says close to 100 tourism operators around Fiji have joined the campaign with a number of tourism-related businesses such as tour, entertainment and activity providers taking advantage of the initiatives.

He says this 55% occupancy rate does not take into account the growing local meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions market also known as the MICE market.

Koya says the occupants were Fijians who on average spent 2.3 nights.

The Tourism Minister says whilst they don’t expect domestic consumption to completely fill the void left by the international travel industry, they are optimistic about the “Love Our Locals” campaign and it will continue to cushion the impact as much as possible.

Koya says just recently, about 200 staff at Outrigger Resort have resumed work as a result of the "Love Our Locals" campaign and these employees are working more than 3 days a week with most of them on full-time duties.

He says not only that, Outrigger Resort reported that weekends in July were sold out and restaurant sales exceeded the room nights revenue. Koya says a number of operators are reporting full occupancy on weekends and continue to offer more specials in the weekdays to entice weekday travel.

SODELPA MP Lynda Tabuya commended the "Love Our Locals" campaign.

She asked if the government could also explore the "Love Our Local Food" campaign.

Tabuya asked if initiatives were in place to ensure more local food is used in hotels and reduce imports and provide much-needed income for local suppliers.

In response, Koya says our local food has been part of local hotels for quite a while now and hotels are being creative with it.