The Tourism Industry Stakeholders,

Members of the Tourism Advisory Group,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Bula Vinaka and a very good morning to you all.

Today’s meeting is very important for the Ministry and the industry as we plan the future of the industry post-Cyclone Winston.

I am here with only one message that Fiji is open for business and the tourism industry operators need to be on the front foot. We have to leave the destruction of the Cyclone behind and move on with your business – we cannot let setbacks such as these discourage us or bring us down.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The only way we will rebuild Fiji is strengthen our already growing tourism industry. There are many properties around Fiji that are fully operational and are in fact receiving guests from all over the world.

In fact, we need to tell the world that we appreciate the assistance that has been provided but that is only temporary. Fiji needs to build back its economy – our growth levels have been constantly increasing, despite the global growth shifting down slowly. We should remind ourselves how have we been able to do this. It has been the result of the partnership between the Fijian Government and the private sector that the fact that our growth is deeply rooted in the development of our grassroot communities.

We should not lose focus of that, the tourism industry needs to ignite the economic growth that will ensure that the grassroot community is benefiting.

Therefore, best way to enable all Fijians rebuild their lives is after a disaster is to provide them continued stream of income and improving tourism can bring those benefits to the people in the form of employment. We need the visitors to come to Fiji and injection money into the Fijian economy.

I am very proud of the resilience of the tourism stakeholders as they have come together one again in a time of need and strategized on how to ensure that the visitor numbers do not decline.

The Tourism Advisory Group (TAG), which is made up of key representatives from each sector within the tourism industry will focus on immediate actions to reduce booking cancellations due to the impact of Tropical Cyclone Winston to parts of Fiji. And most importantly, focus on educating travellers that tourism in Fiji is very much active and we are ready to receive all our guests with the usual “Bula” smile.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am aware that the TAG Chair and also Fiji Airways will be announcing the industry plans for the coming months, which includes lucrative packages. As the industry is working towards organising themselves, we as the Fijian Government also are standing ready to address any concerns and provide the necessary policy support that will enable faster recovery.

It has been noted that our key visitor markets of Australia and New Zealand together with UK and Canada have issued travel advisories to their citizens cautioning them to travel to Fiji. At the Governmental level we are

We can definitely combat that by showing the world that it is business as usual for many tourism properties. Therefore, you the operators need to step up your marketing in our key markets not just in the form of packages but also showing people the true picture – through the use of photos of the hotels, tours, and tourism related activities full operational after the cyclone.

In this regard, Tourism Fiji has been given clear instructions to market Fiji and the Fijian spirit as widely as possible. We need to replace the images of devastation that the world is seeing. We are not denying that devastation, but it is to ensure that are able to rebuild their lives. We need the economy to recover quickly and the Fijian Government does not believe in sitting and waiting for opportunities to come, we need to create opportunities and capitalise on it.

We need our key markets to know that Fiji is still where happiness finds and there is no place like Fiji.

I look forward to the discussions to and hope to take back from here some of the areas where the industry requires Government support. We need to plan for the medium and long term and for this we need to all work together in the true Fijian spirit.

Vinaka vakalevu.