Fiji Tourism Spends Up On Recovery Campaign

Issued by Fiji Visitors Bureau

February 12, 2007.

NEWS RELEASE

Fiji Tourism Spends Up On Recovery Campaign

Fiji tourism kicks off a $1 million television and newspaper advertising campaign in New Zealand later this week.

Funding is made up of $600,000 from the Fiji Visitors Bureau, with the balance from airlines, wholesalers and retail travel networks.

The campaign is phase two of a recovery strategy to address a decline in visitor numbers following the December 5 military takeover of Government.

An earlier $600,000 campaign offering Kiwis a $499 return airfare, taxes included, proved hugely successful with most flights fully booked through to the end of March.

The low cost airfare was backed by heavy discounting by resorts of between 40 to 50 percent.

Fiji Visitors Bureau¹s New Zealand director, Sala Toganivalu, said the new campaign would aggressively promote low cost package deals for island escapes, cruises, short breaks, adventure and family holidays.

The deals would remain on sale until March 15, with travel available until June 30.

Ms Toganivalu said the interim Fiji Government had just approved funding of $F3.8 million to help with a recovery marketing programme.

Meanwhile, the latest available visitor numbers for Fiji show that a year of negative media coverage and speculation about a military coup which finally eventuated on December 5, had only a minor impact on the Pacific Islands¹ nation.

For the 2006 year, visitors from all markets totalled 545,168, down slightly on the all time record established in 2005 of 549,911.

The New Zealand figures for the year were only down 2.7 percent with 106,246, compared to the previous year¹s all time record of 109,006.

However, the coup did dent December figures, said Ms Toganivalu.

New Zealand visitor numbers at 6030 were down 27 percent for the month on the 2005 figure of 8323.

³Fortunately, December and January are traditionally slow months for Fiji, and while the percentage drop is large, the numbers involved were small,² she said.

ENDS

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