In a panel discussion, Tourism Fiji Chief Marketing Officer Srishti Narayan proposed putting a cap on visitor numbers well in advance of reaching levels of overtourism, before it impacts the local community, environment and culture.
“I’d love us to just take the stand and say it’s not always about growing more and bigger. It’s about growing deeper and more meaningful,” she said.
“What we’re seeing around the world is people waiting until they’ve tipped into overtourism before they take action. I’d love to see us take action before that [happens].”
It was a comment that was met with resounding applause from the audience.
Meanwhile, Kylie Ruwhiu-Karawana, consultant at TRC Tourism and a tourism development specialist, suggested the industry shifts its focus away from being solely on commercial numbers.
Instead of concentrating on the financial performance of a business, the sector also needs to look at the numbers behind how it is giving back to the local community culturally, socially and environmentally, she said.
“What we need to do as an industry is change our metrics of success. How many youth are we employing? How many businesses have we [helped] with their start-ups? How many collectives have we got? How many people are involved in it?” Ruwhiu-Karawana questioned.
“How are we starting to change visitors’ views of the world, one visitor at a time, but also lifting the capability and capacity of our industry?”
Meanwhile, Fiji Airways Chief Customer Officer Akuila Batiweti called for more financial support for the airline and other businesses to be able to invest locally, using the example of needing to purchase Lindt chocolate from overseas instead of selecting a Fijian product that is four times more expensive.
“How do we jack that up over the next few years to make sure we don’t need to go to Australia to buy Lindt chocolate and that we can buy chocolate here that has a story and it comes from this place?” said Batiweti.
“It’s grown by these people, and it’s harvested by these people, and it creates 500 jobs. That’s the challenge for us.”
James Sowane, Managing Director of transport services Tewaka, also called for the need for affordable housing to support those local people working within the sector, rather than sleeping on the floor of a family member’s home.
“We expect them to perform at five-star level each and every day, it doesn’t match,” he emphasised.
“Let’s look after our people. Affordable housing is critical for our industry for [our people] to perform at the level that we need.”
Keeping the authenticity alive
Off the back of Hill’s enthusiasm around leveraging turnaround cruises on the island, as well as the new direct routes between Fiji, Dallas and Cairns, the island is now preparing to welcome those increased numbers of guests.
However, the panellists expressed concern around how the industry will maintain the much-loved Fijian culture and authenticity alive at scale and ensure that the experience is not diluted.
As Narayan pointed out, the cultural experience of Fiji is currently deeply embedded in its tourism, from visitors being greeted with ‘bula!’ on the street everywhere they go to the singing they hear in the community (and even the airport) and activities that they experience.
“[But in] the chase for quick growth and the chase for short-term growth, often the commitment to a deeply authentic experience can be diluted,” Narayan warned.
“So I think we have to be very, very committed in the strategy that we’ve developed to make sure that we let everybody know, we don’t have to be Hawaii, we’re not trying to be. We don’t have to be Bali, we’re not trying to be. Fiji is distinctive in its own way and we’ll continue to tell that story.”
According to Narayan, the answer lies in supporting community tourism and smaller operators who offer authentic experiences so they can keep up with Fiji’s increasing visitor numbers.
These kinds of businesses include traditional health and wellness retreat operator Balabala Bobo; Vavavi, which offers traditional lovo cooking classes; and Go Dirty Fiji, which takes guests on quad bikes into local villages at the foot of the mountains in Nadi.
“We’ve got some incredible tour operators doing some really unique, very authentic tours, but we need to continue to invest in the infrastructure to keep these things alive and to grow them,” Narayan noted.
“I think there is sometimes a tendency to think, ‘Oh, we should be like those guys in those big markets and we should try different things,” she continued.
“But I think that we’re seeing increasingly the traveller wants what’s true to that country, so we really need to encourage our operators to embrace that.”
It’s not all about hotels
While there are plenty of exciting developments happening in the hotel sector in Fiji, the focus of the sector needs to go beyond just large resorts and hotel chains, Sowane argued, especially when it comes to government funding for other services such as transport.
As those hotels continue to expand, there is increasing pressure on the transport sector to offer more services, whether it’s boat or bus transfers or strategies around electronic vehicles.
The hotel incentive act in Fiji offers many concessions and subsidies so those properties are able to develop and scale.
“But there’s nothing for tour operators. There’s nothing for a community-based operator that wants to start a cultural centere…Everything is focused on hotels, with all due respect,” Sowane said, noting the 16 projects and 2,600 rooms currently under construction in Fiji.
“How are we going to facilitate the needs [of visitors] if they have a 9.5 days average length of stay? How are we going to keep them entertained throughout the stay? You need ancillary services. We say a rising tide raises all boats. It’s not just the hotels that should be thriving here.”
Inclusive storytelling
As a multi-ethnic nation, Fiji is on a similar journey as other destinations around the world, which are faced with the challenge of accurately representing themselves to the rest of the world, Narayan explained.
It starts with respecting Fiji’s indigenous population and their cultural values and ensuring they have a seat at the leadership table across all different facets of tourism, from policy-making and government to on-the-ground operations, she said.
“For us at Tourism Fiji, we try to make sure that we do represent the Fiji’s population in all of the work that we do. It’s not easy and we get some criticism when we have sometimes haven’t got it quite right. We may have represented something that’s not 100% authentic,” Narayan explained, adding that the organisation engages with many different advisors around diversity and inclusion.
In recent brand marketing efforts, Tourism Fiji campaigns have been portrayed in various languages, including Indo-Fijian, English and the indigenous language, iTaukei.
“It’s important for us that we reflect [in our advertising] the population that the tourist experiences when they come to Fiji,” Narayan said.
Ruwhiu-Karawana also called for local communities to “be unapologetic” about who they are and to lean into their stories when engaging with tourists.
“Be unapologetic about who you are, tell your chapter of ‘the storybook’. And then when people travel through the islands, they get the entire storybook, or they’ll just get various chapters, then come back and get the rest,” she said.
“Tourism Fiji shouldn’t be telling all of the stories – they should be giving the highlights and the clips to entice people to come.”
“It’s your stories to tell.”
