Fiji's tourism industry galvanises to get visitors back

Transcript

The tourism industry in Fiji has wasted no time in banding together to pull overseas visitors back in the wake of Cyclone Winston.

As the country's biggest employer, the ripple effect of a downturn in tourism, could have huge impacts.

But as Bridget Tunnicliffe reports, the industry has already leapt to action.

About one in three people in Fiji work in the tourism industry. Tourism is also the largest revenue contributor to the economy and accounts for 30 percent of the country's GDP. The president of the Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association, Dixon Seeto, says the best thing people from overseas can do to help Fiji, is to keep coming. He says industry stakeholders are confident that will happen.

DIXON SEETO: About 20 percent of visitors are actually returnees so many of them have forged relationships in all the resorts and hotels that they stay in, with the workers and the villagers so many of them would come back. And we also need to sort of reassure the people that you know Fiji is open for business, it's a safe place.

The Tourism Action Group (TAG) is a committee set up by the industry and comprises hoteliers, tour operators, Tourism Fiji and Fiji Airways. It's chaired by the managing director of Tour Managers Fiji, Damend Gounder, who first headed it after the coup in 2000 and subsequent coup of 2006. It's been reactivated as a result of cyclone Winston - the first time after a natural disaster. After spearheading the recovery programme for the industry following the coups Damend Gounder says they know it's important to go out to the marketplace and reassure potential travellers.

DAMEND GOUNDER: We need to get back as a group and the industry to be united in you know sending out messages and campaigns etcetera targetting this little lull that we have just experienced.

Dixon Seeto says potential markets have been flooded with images via the media of the severe destruction caused by the category five cyclone, which ripped through the country nearly two weeks ago. The North-Western side of Fiji suffered the brunt of the cyclone but he says they need to let people overseas know that not all of Fiji looks like that. Mr Seeto says they are trying to speak with one voice.

DIXON SEETO: And we just want to portray a very accurate picture of Fiji as it is and much of the tourism industry is open for business. You know I walked around hotels in the West on Denarau, along the Coral Coast, they've cleaned up and if you didn't know you probably wouldn't know that there was a cyclone.

Damend Gounder says one strategy is to use social media to spread the message and select visitors could be given selfie-sticks and cameras to capture and share their holiday experience on-line. He says short haul customers from New Zealand and Australia are important to them right now. Flight Centre New Zealand's marketing manager, Jodie Bernard, says there was a dip in bookings right after the cyclone but it's picked up again now that most of the popular resorts are operational. Cyclone Pam resulted in a drop-off in tourism to Vanuatu last year but she says Fiji is pretty resilient and doesn't believe it will take long for bookings to return to normal.

JODIE BERNARD: Vanuatu was probably a little bit less prepared than Fiji so it's probably taken them a little bit longer to get back on their feet as opposed to some of the bigger resorts in Fiji. We know that Vanuatu is back up and running and still a popular destination. Fiji for us is one of our number one Pacific destinations so I think we've seen that bounce back a little bit quicker.

Jodie Bernard says many New Zealanders have an affinity with Fiji and expects them to want to support it by travelling there.