Tourist figures rise by 11pc

Fiji Times - Wednesday, April 28, 2010

VISITOR arrivals for February and March this year have increased substantially according to figures released by the Fiji Bureau of Statistics.

The official statistics show a total of 35,010 international travellers visiting Fiji throughout February an 11.5 per cent increase over the 31,386 recorded for the same period in 2009.

March figures also show an increase in visitor arrivals 46,750 international travellers came to Fiji representing a 29.4 per cent increase.

Tourism Fiji Chief Executive Officer Josefa Tuamoto said the achievements could be largely attributed to the success of its regional offices and industry partners in several key markets via an ongoing series of strategic marketing campaigns.

He said Australia and New Zealand were again the top two performers in terms of actual numbers of people visiting.

He said for the first quarter (January-March) the Australian figures reached 57,009 a 53.9 per cent increase over the 37,053 figure recorded in 2009.

While New Zealand numbers (January-March) rose from 9913 last year to 13,441 this year an increase of 35.6 per cent.

Mr Tuamoto said while base visitor figures in Fiji's targeted emerging markets remained relatively small, he was happy with the numbers from China, Taiwan and South Korea.

He said the three countries showed respective increases of 77.5percent, 86.8percent and 49.2 per cent for the first quarter.