The Bureau of Statistics reveals that Fiji continues to be a leading tourist destination.
The bureau revealed better results in tourism arrivals for the month of June this year with an increase of 6.6 per cent compared to the same month last year.
There were 61,919 visitors for the month, an increase of more than 3000.
Government statistician Timoci Bainimarama revealed Fiji continued to be the best destination for Australians with 31,073 visitors arriving on our shores – an increase of 5.6 per cent compared to 29, 974 of the same month last year.
Visitors from New Zealand increased to 11, 545 - an increase of 9.4 per cent from 10, 557 recorded last year.
The Kiwis are followed by the United States of America with 6111 (8 per cent increase) and continental Europe with 2247 (2 per cent increase).
Meanwhile, increases for June 2011 when compared to 2010 were recorded for visitors from China (44.9 per cent), Canada (9.6 per cent) and United Kingdom (1.4 per cent) while decreases were noted for Japan (30.1 per cent) and Korea (0.4 per cent).
The bureau also recorded an increase in visitor arrivals for the first six months (January – June) which showed an increase of 9 per cent over the corresponding period in 2010 from 2, 777, 754 to 302, 734.
Different attractive packages from the various tourism stakeholders including the biggest contributor – Tourism Fiji seems to be eye catching as statistics have revealed that 75 per cent of the total visitor numbers were arriving for holiday purposes.
Of the 9 per cent visitors that came to visit family and friends, 15.3 per cent came for other reasons.
There is also an increase noted for resident arrivals with Fiji passport holders residing overseas recording 3, 432.
Last year 1208 resident arrivals were recorded.