So says Brent Hill, CEO of Tourism Fiji, who spoke with me during the Fiji Tourism Exchange (FTE). The three-day industry conference was held May 5-7 at the Sheraton Fiji Golf & Beach Resort near Nadi, bringing together more than 200 trade and media partners, along with local travel suppliers.
“The way we’ve started the year, you’re talking 18% to 20% lift in the first quarter from North America,” Hill said, mentioning that visitor arrivals from the U.S. and Canada are strong.
“I would love to … get maybe 10% [total growth] over the course of the year,” he added.
Hill also acknowledged that this sort of year-over-year jump in total arrivals from North America for 2024 won’t be easy, noting that 2023 was a record year for visitors to Fiji from the U.S. and Canada.
Hill credited last year’s success to his team’s North America-focused marketing efforts and the new Airbus A350 planes that Fiji Airways is operating on the carrier’s nonstop routes linking Los Angeles, San Francisco and Vancouver to Nadi, located on Fiji’s main island of Vitu Levu.
“The advantage of that is people say, ‘These planes are awesome,’” Hill explained. “And also, you can just fit more people on the plane.”
Aggressive Airfares and Record Revenue
The Tourism Fiji CEO also noted that another major positive for North American travelers is Fiji Airways’ aggressive fares.
“I think United [Airlines], Delta [Air Lines] and so on have increased into the Oceania region — [to] something like 40% capacity,” Hill said. “And Fiji Airways is like, ‘OK, we’ve got to compete,’ so the airfare is really, really strong.”
During his opening-night remarks to the crowd of gathered FTE industry stakeholders — which included government officials, airline executives, hoteliers, tour operators and travel advisors — Hill said Fiji set a new overall arrivals record of more than 929,000 total visitors in 2023.