Fiji struggles to revive crippled industry
Associated Press
SUVA, Fiji — Strolling hand-in-hand along a deserted white sand beach fringed with swaying coconut palms, American vacationers Mark and Sandy Greenfield saw no signs of Fiji's racial tensions and fractured democracy.
In fact, they enjoyed their month in the South Pacific islands nation so much they plan to return in March.
"We already have our tickets," said Sandy Greenfield, from Tallahassee, Fla., currently living in Tokyo.
"People have treated us royally," said Mark. "Unless you read about it in the newspaper, you wouldn't know there was much tension or trouble going on here. I have a feeling ... that if it stays stable for about another year, your tourism will build back again."
The government's tourism promotion body, the Fiji Visitors' Bureau, could hardly have written a better promotional script as it struggles to revive this South Pacific nation's biggest foreign currency-earning industry.
Savaged by the effects of the May 2000 nationalist coup and the country's image of instability, the tourism sector estimates it will have lost $112 million in revenue by the end of this year.
Last year's raid by armed Fijian nationalists on Fiji's Parliament triggered rioting in the capital, Suva, and occupations by indigenous Fijian landowners of a handful of resorts. It also led to months of social, political and economic turmoil.
Authorities hope elections under way this week to restore the nation to democratic rule also will bring back stability.
Visitor numbers plunged 40 percent as governments such as Australia and New Zealand warned their citizens to stay away from the islands because their security could not be guaranteed. Tens of thousands of vacationers from Europe, Asia and North America also joined the virtual boycott.
Local hoteliers, travel agents and promoters believe the warnings were unnecessary and damaging.
Regular tourists agree.
Australian Mark Tiltins has visited Fiji annually for the past 17 years.
"It frustrates you to hear the sort of words that (foreign) governments use about the place," he said. "We've been through both coups (1987 and 2000) here. There hasn't been any trouble for the white people here when they visit."
Visitors' bureau marketing director, Bill Whiting, is gambling on that sound investment image being reinforced by the election. Results from the poll are expected in early September.
Convinced of the opportunities ahead for the sector, he's pushing to more than double Fiji's tourism income to $500 million over the next seven years.
That will mean attracting major offshore investors to build the hotels and resorts to cater to more than 800,000 visitors a year.
"There is investment out there just waiting for the right environment," Whiting said.
He lists three conditions that he believes are critical to meet investor requirements before they will commit resources to the nation: political stability, investment tax concessions and the recovery in visitor numbers.
Martin Darveniza, managing director and chief executive of the resort operator Tabua Investments, isn't waiting for a new government to create a more secure investment climate.
Tabua's parent group, Singapore-based Brierley Investments Ltd., announced this week that it had bought out co-investors in Tabua and now owns the $125 million Denarau Island resort with 1,000 rooms clustered around four complexes near Nadi in western Fiji.
Denarau, six miles from the country's international airport, will add another 1,500 resort rooms on its 665 acres of land over the next seven to eight years, Darveniza told the Associated Press.
The decision by Brierley Investments — also the owner of Moloka'i Ranch in Hawai'i — to invest was based on its confidence in the future of Fiji as a Pacific vacation destination.
"Fiji is a stable country. Even at the height of last year, the government continued and we operated normally," Darveniza said, referring to last year's coup.
This week, a group of California investors announced it was pumping $68 million into a new resort hotel project near Suva.
Figures for this year show the number of visitors running 18 percent behind the trend before the coup. Whiting, of the visitor's bureau, said numbers are being driven up by discounts on travel and room rates.
