Only about 20% of hotels have re-opened - Lockington

Only about 20% of the 400 resorts and hotels in the country have re-opened as local tourism slowly picks up.

The CEO of the Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association Fantasha Lockington says this is because domestic tourism does not come out for the whole week but only a weekend or maybe three days at the most.

She says apart from people not having the time or the money to spend more time in hotels and resorts, the response to the “Love our Locals” campaign has been great.

Lockington says it has allowed the hotels that have decided to open to test out the new way of doing business.

She says the International Labour Organisation has identified that there are around 115,000 unemployed workers right now who have been directly affected by the current economic situation brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lockington says this probably includes many of the communities that get supported by tourism activity or businesses.

She says COVID-19 is teaching them that if they do not change quickly and the rest of the world will beat them.