Cruise firm welcomes extra airline seats to Fiji

www.fijitimes.com - Monday, November 16, 2009

THE announcement of new airline operators into Fiji and increased airline seats is good news to the tourism industry, says South Seas Cruises chief executive Kit Nixon.

He said the industry was only as good as the number of seats and the availability of passenger transport to get them to Fiji.

South Sea Cruises employs more than 200 staff based in Denarau, where it operates its daily boat transfers and day trips to island resorts.

Mr Nixon said the company also had a program that ran to the Yasawas through Awesome Adventures, its sister company that operates out of Mana Island through Sea Spray, and also ran water sports.

He said the more seats on airlines operating into Fiji the better it was for everyone and with Air Pacific to start flights to Hong Kong next month, it meant progress for the country.

He said devaluation of the dollar elped boost the tourism industry by bringing families to Fiji over the school holidays.

"The cost of holidaying in Fiji is reasonable. Fiji is a place where you can spend what you can afford," he said.

"We at South Sea Cruises are happy with our pricing and think our company offers people great value for money in getting out to the islands and we will continue to promote it that way.

"We play a big part in the marketing of Fiji internationally for the company and for the Mamanuca Group."

Mr Nixon said the year had been tough, especially after the January floods, and it had taken time to rebuild.

However, in the past few months the company had seen a highly-successful holiday period from Australia and New Zealand.

"We hope that over November and December we will have people consistantly coming into the country and we will get ready for some good growth next year," he said.