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The Governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji, Sada Reddy has lauded Fiji’s tourism industry as the major contributor to growth and development for the country.
Speaking on the subject ‘Economic contribution of tourism the way forward’ at the 2010 Fiji Tourism Forum at Plantation Island on Malolo Lailai this morning Reddy added Fiji needs to have a policy on sustainable tourism development for future generations.
“The key to Fiji’s attraction as a tourism destination is the pristine environment that we enjoy but take advantage of,” he said
Reddy said that tourism earnings averaged around $820 million in the last three years.
“Compared with $250 million for remittances, $200 million for sugar exports and $130 million for fish, this year’s tourism earnings are expected to grow further by around 11 percent to around $910 million,” he said
“In addition to tourism’s significant contribution to output and employment, the sector is also a major foreign exchange earner for Fiji.
“Visitor arrivals for the last five months of this year rose by over 22 percent to 217,000 over the levels in 2009, we expect to hit 600,000 visitors this year.”
He said that if tourist’s influx hits the mark, it will be the highest number of visitor arrivals to be recorded.
Reddy said Australia and New Zealand continued to be Fiji’s major source markets.
"Of particular importance to Fiji tourism is the growth forecast for Australia, New Zealand and the US.
“The Australia economy is chugging along pretty well while the NZ and US economies are also expected to recover from the low levels of the last two years.
He said: “Therefore against this background, we expect good recovery in tourism from these economies.
However, he said, one needs to be a little cautious on this front as most analysts say there are still some risks that some economies may not see a sustained recovery.
“Figures on resident departures from these respective countries show that in the January-May 2010 period, Australia departures for Fiji rose by 49 percent to 105,000 visitors when compared to the same time last year.
Over the same period, arrivals from New Zealand to Fiji rose by 22 percent.
Reddy went on to say that there is potential for Fiji to tap on in the huge Asian market given that Asian are now traveling abroad as their income levels have increased.
“Tourists from Asia for the past five years have now averaged up to 45,000.
“Better airline connectivity between Fiji and Asia through the introduction of flights to Hong Kong last year augurs well with the industry,” he said.
By Maciu Bolaitamana
