Tourism Fiji to maintain Australia/NZ regional offices

Tourism Fiji CEO Josefa Tuamoto

Tourism Fiji’s newly appointed Chairman Dave Pflieger and CEO Josefa Tuamoto today noted that contrary to a New Zealand trade report on Monday, Fiji’s national tourist office had no intention of closing or consolidating any of its various offices.

Speaking from the national tourist office’s head office in Nadi, Mr Pflieger noted that “there are absolutely no plans to close or consolidate any of Tourism Fiji’s offices.”

He went on to add that he expected Mr Tuamoto and his team “will stay focused on the key markets of Australia and New Zealand because those two countries are Fiji’s first and second most important sources for visitors.”

Mr Tuamoto added that “while some adjustments are planned for our marketing spend this year, Australia and New Zealand will continue to receive the lion’s share of Fiji’s government funded FJD23.5 million tourism budget.”

He went on to say that “if anything, our key change for 2011 is to place even more emphasis on how and where we will be doing our marketing activity within Australia and New Zealand, so that we can maximize Fiji’s return on investment in this key national industry.”

Mr Tuamoto pointed towards recently released Fiji bureau of statistics figures which show the destination’s total international visitor arrivals for September 2010 had again been boosted by strong performances from both of these key markets.