Category: Resources

FHTA, 3 June 2021 – As the skies rain down due to a deep low-pressure system over the Fiji group, the weather appears to mirror our collective gloom as we head into our seventh week of restricted movement and containment within specific areas.

Our active COVID case numbers continue to increase; an alarming confirmation that the virus is moving through far too many communities around the country, far too quickly.

Which unfortunately means we are still not heeding the medical advice to stay at home to avoid crowds, sanitise or wash hands often, mask up correctly and stop sharing everything as is our island inclination as caring Fijians.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that all viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, change over time. Most changes have little to no impact on the virus’ properties. However, some changes affect the virus’s propensity to spread more easily, impact humans more severely, or affect the performance of vaccines, therapeutic medicines, diagnostic tools, or other public health and social measures.

Due to the many variants of COVID-19 in the world right now, a new naming system has been put into place by WHO to correctly distinguish individual variants.

The variant currently in Fiji has been identified as the India variant of COVID-19 and is now officially referred to as COVID-19 Delta.

We certainly did not need a mercenary sounding name to make a havoc-causing virus that has held a bewildered population hostage for nigh on 2 months now, any more sinister.

This particular variant of COVID-19 that is running amok in our communities is highly transmissible and has increased in virulence. But the untold woe it has also caused the economy is just beginning to dawn on commercial and business interests that have not been impacted up to now.

Closed businesses must now apply to reopen after they have had to adapt to the current national regulations governing their operations and this is inconvenient and burdensome for many.

If you are a small operator, you must find a way to separate workers when they take meal breaks, constantly wipe down surfaces, provide accessible handwash stations with soap, make sanitisers available, take temperature tests at the business entrances and check that CareFiji Apps are on and operational with the use of mandatory smartphones.

This is neither simple to do, nor economical for a small garage with only 3 people working in it, or a small bakery with 5 workers and cramped space to sell baked goods from, or as a food restaurant responding to the demand for cheaper food options.

The bakers need curfew passes now to get to work by 4 am so that our fresh bread is ready when we wake up each morning.

Proprietors must now go online to apply for passes and organise transport for their staff to get to and from work. Large factories must rearrange workspaces, review delivery timetables, manage larger groups of workers to enable safer working environments and keep an eye on hygiene and correct mask-wearing to avoid planned on the spot fines.

Everyone applying to reopen their business must upload a copy of their COVID safe SOP’s. This key part of the requirement is not understood by many as being a critical part for the relevant ministries to be sufficiently confident that you have a guideline document in place, and more importantly, know how to go about keeping your staff and customers safe.

Unfortunately, there is insufficient help for small businesses to put this together along with training to ensure everyone does know what to do.

New protocols on reopening businesses have been rolled out but there is still widespread confusion on who needs to get approvals to reopen, and in the absence of known categories for trade, the majority of SME’s do not understand whether they are included in essential service listings, supplier listings or as support services.

For example, people must bury their deceased loved ones, so they must access mortuary services, who in turn need coffins made for them by suppliers, and for which carpenters need access to timber. However, the carpenters supplying coffins are unaware they are providing a support service for an essential service provider and timber suppliers are closed.

In the same manner that petrol stations were unaware they could be considered as support services for emergency service providers to refuel crucial transport lines.

Now might be the time for commerce and trade and all manner of businesses to gain a better understanding to being better prepared for business resilience for longer-term disasters, be aware of where they fit into supply chains and adopt plans to enable online connections and access clear communications.

For tourism businesses, navigating the wide range of business needs for SME’s, accommodation, activity and transport providers as well as suppliers to these and other forms of business within the tourism domain; requires understanding these separate but clear categorisations.

This allowed the Fiji Hotel & Tourism Association (FHTA) to wade through the many requirements and clarify what needed to be done by who and how. Further bolstered by the already-in-place COVID safe operating procedures being practised that have been tested at various degrees of severity over the last 12 months.

But amidst the uncertainty of how we now operate under the new conditions and using the new normal ways to do business in such a way that we maintain some semblance of ensuring the economy continues to move in the right direction; we need to evaluate what speed with which we wish to move.

And more fundamentally, WHEN we decide we should be moving as a nation.

Moving back to work, to school and back home. To our families we miss and those communities we left and our island homes far away.

All still free of any COVID infections.

The pain tourism has experienced with the industry brought to its knees a year ago is as raw as ever, with severely diminished revenue streams and operational costs in play.

But no one doubts the risks COVID infections running through our communities would inflict, the disastrous impact on our population and how extremely difficult it would be to come back from that dark place that nations far more advanced than ours have found themselves in.

We do not believe we are quite out of the woods yet. And the rising infection rates certainly do not provide any confidence that giving in to economic pressure now is going to help the large community.

Lockdowns and containment areas are uncomfortable, puts pressure on already limited resources and pushes our informal sectors into desperate situations with access to food and medicine.

These are the areas we must focus on first.

Kudos to the Australian Government and other donor agencies for the generous support going directly to these needy communities through the CSO’s doing their very best with what they have, to reach those who need help the most.

Thanks also to those providing generously of their own time and funding to do what they can, including the provision of mental health support.

We also welcome the recent announcement by the Reserve Bank of Fiji approving another reduction in the interest rate charged on financial institutions that borrow under its Import Substitution and Export Finance Facility (ISEFF), Disaster Rehabilitation and Containment Facility (DRCF) and the Housing Facility (HF).

Financial institutions (commercial banks, license credit institutions and others) can pass on the reduction in interest rates to eligible businesses and households that have been struggling to manage during this crisis. The usual rate of 5percent will now be 3.99 per cent per annum effective from the start of this month.

Vaccination programs have been ratcheted up around the country and appear to be progressing well with more people recognising that being vaccinated can add a critical additional layer of protection. For them, their families and anyone they interact with.

With sufficient vaccinations, we could effectively reduce transmission, reduce the virus’s current strength and allow us to really open up safely.

We can open up safely soon enough. Let’s not rush this and regret it more painfully.

By: Fantasha Lockington – CEO, FHTA (Published in the Fiji Times on 3 June 2021)

FHTA, 27 May 2021 – As the figures of our active COVID-19 cases reach three digits for the first time in Fiji, we are reminded once again of the importance of following the standing health regulations and protocols.

Fiji is teetering on a knife edge of a full-blown explosion of positive COVID cases that reinforces how critical Government’s vaccination programs are now even more than ever.

As we endure another week of restricted movement in our various containment areas, the tourism sector continues to work behind the scenes on the survival, revival and revitalisation of the industry given its well recognised importance to the economy, underpinned in no small part by how quickly more Fijians would get their jobs back once fully operational.

Our tourism fraternity has been engaged in supporting the various agencies with their logistical needs and we re-emphasise our appreciation to our members for doing so.

The national economy has been struggling under the immense pressure of not having tourism’s earning power and the industry’s thousands of supply lines and unemployed staff are bearing this same pain.

While individual business revenues directly and indirectly involved in the sector have sharply declined, fixed costs remain while critical cash flows rapidly deplete.

The Pacific Trade Invest issued its Pacific Business Monitor for this month making for more sobering reading. And while there are some bright spots, is still concerning nonetheless.

The report indicates the more prevalent business outlook that there will not be a return to pre-COVID revenue anytime soon until 2022 or later. Additionally, it notes that the extent and severity of COVID-19 on Pacific businesses has remained stable (as opposed to worsening), with 84 percent reporting a negative impact.

FHTA has shared through this forum, that we need to adapt our business practices to minimize potential exposure to infection for the medium to long term future, while ensuring that these practices impact our eventual recovery.

Travel and tourism organisations around the world collectively support the thinking that this will be the key to getting the industry out of the current crisis, with the global vaccination drive being the key to supporting this.

There is also no doubt that continued testing still plays an important role, as will building the confidence with future travellers into and out of Fiji that once we have reached the optimum vaccination levels that risks are reduced, will consequently be a natural segue way into improved confidence for borders reopening between regions.

There is more research suggesting that travel and tourism will bounce back quickly just as soon as the restrictive barriers that have enveloped the industry for more than a year start to be removed.

At the same time, we note the Cook Islands travel industry has not yet seen the immediate effect of borders reopening except for the VFR market (visiting friends & relatives) movement.

Australia has indicated that they are not willing to open their borders until mid-2022 due largely to the unfortunate stalling of their vaccination programs. While concerning for Fiji and the region, a positive might be that we will probably be on the receiving end of their now excess numbers of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines that are not so popular with their citizens.

For now, our focus is supporting Fiji get its vaccination numbers to herd immunity and whatever magic number is rated sufficient for our population to be considered immune enough for the disease, and a key component for the closed border situations to be reviewed.

No doubt, with the introduction of new traffic light systems, travel corridors and bubbles that will henceforth define what our future mobility will look like, the focus on vaccination programs remains key for most countries.

Most, if not all, of our tourism SME’s will need assistance to get back on their feet when the time is right and the PTI report supports our own views that there will be need for critical financial support, access to new markets, business diversifications and improved online-commerce capabilities.

We know that all segments of tourism are reviewing their business strategies.

Airlines are relooking at routes that have historically been built on solid data from travel demand, travel demographics and flight connections. Even then much of what happened immediately was never really a reliable sign of what would happen in the future, and now after the worst health crisis in modern times, much of this information is considered even more irrelevant.

Demand is now being influenced demographically and global tourism is experiencing never before seen changes from traditional source markets.

Fiji will be no different and if we are too rigid in our thinking about where we expect changes might come from, we may lose some opportunities to capture new markets that may not have a choice of how far they can travel from their homes.

Or consider safety in their travel plans as a major reason for confirming a future booking.

Like it or not, we must learn to live with COVID and the threat it holds on us for the foreseeable future.

We have now received a little over 200,000 vaccines from COVAX and donor countries and we expect to receive more in the coming months. Fiji’s vaccination target is around 600,000 people which amounts to 1.2 million vaccines for two doses per person without any wastage.

Whatever the magic number, it is indeed a huge expectation, but assuredly not impossible to achieve with recognised support from Australia and more promised from New Zealand to look forward to.

It cannot be emphasized enough that the medical staff need more active support and less keyboard warrior criticism. It is a tough job to convince a population of just under 1 million that the procedures developed are the best for the majority.

And without any precedents to base decisions on, it might be valid to keep in mind that the world’s most developed countries made some of the biggest mistakes in their own applications to addressing this virus.

Caring about not letting more people die, stopping the spread and vaccinating should be the number one priority strategy line for every country, business, and household.

All other decisions, action plans and activities simply flow on from these.

Difficult. But doable.

By: Fantasha Lockington – CEO, FHTA (Published in the Fiji Times on 27 May 2021)

FHTA, 20 May 2021 – Zimbabwean author Matshona Dhliwayo said that “When all seems to be against you, remember, a ship sometimes has to sail against the current, not with it.”

Life, as we know it, is getting tougher as we navigate this pandemic with wariness and often increasing pessimism that things are indeed going to get worse before they get better. And one might be forgiven for thinking that we had already hit rock bottom by late last year and that surely, the only place left to go was up.

Alas, there was a basement level we forgot existed.

The well-documented effects of the border closures and subsequent flatlining of Fiji’s tourism industry have been heard about often enough.

The Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association (FHTA), through this weekly column, has endeavoured to provide background and insight into the industry’s workings, the multiplier effect it has throughout the economy, the impact of COVID more recently and how the industry was forced to respond, as well as the enormous repercussions of industry standing still for so long.

But in the background, far from that stillness, there are always discussions, planning and meetings still going on, to work on ways to support stem the outbreak worsening, prepare for the second vaccine jabs and review safe reopening preparations, amongst other challenges.

The capital city meanwhile, is in a state of collective shock with the lockdowns forcing family groups to stay within their bubbles, deal with the frequent rain, grumpy children in cramped yards and mountains of damp clothes, while their pantries had no doubt run out of food before the second day of lockdown had started.

In a population of 902,000, one out of three Fijians lives between Lami and Nausori with the bulk of low-cost housing and informal settlements located within this division.

No one understands why the few vehicles on the road are speeding or using sirens that scream incessantly and probably unnecessarily throughout the night. But it reminds everyone in the neighbourhoods they travel through even more poignantly, that everyone is locked in because this is supposed to help stop that sneaky virus.

How prepared will Fiji be for an inevitable reopening? Initially reopening sections in our cities, then regions and eventually our borders will have to be ready.

We can better understand now, the impact of not taking the virus as seriously as it should have been. It is now wreaking even more economic damage with other industries being forced to close. It is making more poor people go hungry and those on the margins of poverty slip further into it.

If you were able to plan your entire week’s meals during this week’s lockdowns and enjoyed those meals with a beer or a wine, consider yourself blessed and very lucky.

Those tourism workers that lost their jobs over the last twelve months have certainly not had this privilege. Their food handouts ceased many months ago unless they are still part of a resort or business community that still gets consistent support.

So, no resting for the businesses in the industry that will be at the forefront of any safe reopening strategies.
If the new thinking is to be believed and accepted more widely, Fiji needs to learn to live with COVID.

The COVID experts, growing by the thousands daily, advise that the first step is rapidly detecting people with infection, outbreaks and sites of increased transmission. We can check that off because this is what the controls in place now and lockdowns are all about.

The next 2 steps include isolating and managing infected people as well as investigating outbreaks. We can check these off as well because our nightly updates from the good doctors confirm this.

The ensuing measures of decreasing community transmission and strengthening control measures are probably the more difficult aspects to impose on our society.

Contact tracing, trusting people to self-isolate and insisting on mask-wearing, social distancing and enhanced hygiene can be difficult when people still believe they could not possibly get a virus they cannot see, do not understand and seriously doubt exists. Hygiene needs to be made more difficult no doubt when many parts of Suva still suffer intermittent water supplies.

We know the next three steps are in place which includes ensuring testing is strategic, protecting the health and social care systems and continuing mitigations of general risks. We certainly hope they are successfully done.

Involve the business and private sectors notes the next step and to a certain extent, we can certainly say we have seen this as well. Our COVID Safe Guidelines, the Care Fiji Commitment (CFC) that all tourism businesses must comply with and our internal action plans have all been done in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health.

But a comprehensive response is not the only preparation that is required of countries around the world. And Fiji will be no different if we plan to re-engage with the world at some stage, as we must.

Learning to live with COVID means that we get used to snap-lockdowns, wearing masks in public and travelling with a keener eye on hygiene as part of our safety checks.

Even other risk mitigation strategies like PCR testing and voluntary or mandatory quarantine will not be sufficient because there is no optimum way to prevent COVID from being imported into a country, no matter how vigorously our testing protocols are applied at borders.

With sufficient numbers of people around the world vaccinated, we may reduce the virus to other flu-like occurrences it is hoped.

In being anticipatory to the fluid demands of business operations in this COVID environment, we are getting ready for our second jabs and working collectively on how long it might take to get an entire industry ready for reopening.

We are working to get everyone in the industry vaccinated, as lofty as that may sound. After all, if you could add another protective layer that could avoid you getting hurt, why wouldn’t you?

Resorts and hotels have already been working on their compliance requirements to have domestic and international guests accommodated safely.

And we have commenced gauging the needs of our marine operators to determine what it would require to get everyone operational and safety compliant.

Every vessel that expects to be operating safely on or in the water is being asked to check their equipment replacement or repair needs, safety certificates and crew training needs, so that we can support their efforts towards compliance and border reopening preparations.

Learning to live and do business with COVID might be strange but we may not have a choice in the matter. Better to stop fighting it, adapt quickly and learn to live with it.

This is our strategy for getting ready. Every industry needs to be working on theirs.

By: Fantasha Lockington – CEO, FHTA (Published in the Fiji Times on 20 May 2021)

FHTA, 13 May 2021 – Besides the obvious loss of revenue to their bottom line, many would not be aware of the other missing factor that tourism operators consistently fret about losing during this pandemic and the subsequent border closures.

Their loyal and skilled staff. Many of them as familiar and close to them as family.

The famous tourism workers that beam with smiles that greet visitors on arrival, onboard transfer vessels and planes, or those with the soothing voices that monitor the reservations desks or even those with the experienced, calm dispositions overseeing large events or frenetic dinner services.

These include the hardworking ancillary staff that maintain the manicured lawns, golf courses and shrubbery, and the porters who gladly haul your luggage from one end of a property to the other while singing some glorious hymn, or these can be the polite wait-staff who process your meal orders and return with wonderful meals.

And let’s not forget those wonderful, maternal “Bubu’s” who collect the excited children and babies and take them off for hours of fun so that their parents can take a break.

These hospitality workers have been trained and moulded according to the standards of the various brands and when combined with their natural, genuine Fijian hospitality traits, is the reason that Fiji is Fiji, and why many tourism reliant countries consider this particular competitive edge a distinct and difficult factor to beat.

When the borders closed, tourism businesses had little choice but to close their doors, anchor their vessels, park their planes and store all the activity support gear when the stream of steady international visitors quickly dried up.

Consequently, that also meant furloughing the bulk of their staff on leave without pay, redundancy and termination. A small number would have been initially kept on for security and maintenance purposes.

Eventually, these numbers would be slowly added as the months progressed and weekends and public holidays allowed domestic tourism to provide an intermittent but welcome resumption.

This was then joined by destination marketing initiatives like the Blue Lane and Vacations in Paradise (VIP) travel options to gradually provide some respite to an industry that had almost shut down completely. Almost.

With the closures and the ensuing layoffs, staff returned to the nearby communities or villages, sought employment elsewhere or engaged in entrepreneurial enterprises.

While far more have remained unemployed, many long-term employees still within the communities or villages close to their previous workplaces are fortunate to be still getting support from their previous employers with food packs and monetary assistance, which is further boosted by the rotational work provided intermittently.

Often working only 2 days a week; it can be a tough choice for a skilled tradesperson to continue to work for his longtime employer or choose to take up an offer in a different industry that will move him away from his home but pay him a full week’s wage.

But then, this is a time for difficult choices, where years of training and loyalty may be traded for family support and pressure from financial institutions for repayments and hungry mouths to feed.

Human Resources Managers, often working reduced hours themselves are having to deal with accessing skilled staff at the drop of a hat, because that is almost literally how local bookings get done or making the many calls to staff to advise no work is available.

They must stay in contact despite either situation to ensure administrative requirements like redundancy packages and termination letters are processed correctly, extend furloughs, provide the required support for FNPF processing and be able to bring staff in for standard and COVID safe training.

The use of hotels for quarantine purposes for inbound repatriated Fijians has followed global practices for efficient management and the staffing requirements to support this has provided a much-needed boost for more tourism workers to get more hours in or get their jobs back.

As the nation currently ponders a total lockdown that will surely take place if we are to get the better of the current spreading of this virus, many tourism businesses must wearily go back to their Plan B’s or even Plan C’s, because domestic bookings are being cancelled and no new ones are being received.

Now central division accommodation providers are considering the merits and viability of being used as isolation facilities for potential primary and secondary contacts.

Along with the many conditions they must be compliant with, this will also provide an opportunity to bring back their workers. Not just staff within the accommodation facility, but also maintenance, laundry, housekeeping, food preparation, cleaning, serving, gardening and tradespeople like plumbers, electricians and carpenters.

Work rosters and staff adjustments continue to take place depending on where the focus of the lockdowns are and their consequential impact on businesses within the industry and those far larger number of businesses supporting the industry.

Many may not realise the comprehensive efforts required for island resorts that have staff located there for weeks and even months now after the movement restrictions were imposed. Staff who have been away from home and cannot return because they need their jobs and their homes are located within locked down zones.

Staff who cannot be replaced and are trained, experienced and relied on to ensure the resort is managed, any guests are safe, equipment is working and communication and transport are efficient.

And even while the lockdowns have thrown up their challenges to managing staff numbers relevant to working hours, accessing worksites and supply lines continuing; behind-the-scenes planning continues at the same unabated pace for borders reopening somewhere soon that keeps moving out of our collective grasp.

The tracks have been laid as they were, for a return to our perennial position as the must-visit tourist destination in the Pacific. There is no deviating from this focus. Never has been.

There is a constant need to ensure staff stay on track with the ‘new-normal procedures and protocols that have been drawn up for the safety of the visitor, the staff and the country.

We still need a more defined timeline for when our borders will reopen and a formalised, widely communicated strategy for the key elements that have to be in place before this can take place.

Understanding exactly what must take place, be achieved, ticked off or sufficiently managed are critical elements for businesses, their staff and their suppliers to work towards as larger connected teams.

Even more critically, is ensuring the wider communities, industries and stakeholders are involved in understanding these conditions before we can say that everyone in Fiji is acutely aware of exactly what is at stake.

As we deal individually and within the context of our families or businesses with the increasingly changing situation between working from home, staying within known bubbles and maintaining lockdown protocols, spare a thought for many others in worse situations than your own.

Those unable to get to work and therefore cannot earn any money to provide for families and manage their debts. Many like medical staff, disciplined forces personnel, tourism and other industry staff who are at work but cannot leave to go home.

Because if they went home, they could not return.

For those small businesses that have been forced to close for months now because they have no international visitors and have had to send all their staff home.

Consider the numbers of even smaller businesses that are being added to this list because of closed supply chains, locations within critical locked down zones or by the nature of their trade are no longer able to entertain crowds or allow crowding.

And think about our fresh produce suppliers, farmers and market vendors with dwindling resources and limited to no customers.

An extremely bad situation – our border closures that brought an industry to a halt, has been worsened to nightmare proportions to lockdowns and the entire country coming to an eventual standstill.

Never have so many been relied on to collectively do what they must.

We have no other choice but to work together towards a safer Fiji because everyone is now affected somehow. Not just the tourism industry.

By: Fantasha Lockington – CEO, FHTA (Published in the Fiji Times on 13 May 2021)

FHTA, 6 May 2021 – As the global economy tries to get back on its feet despite the pandemic, Fiji’s national financial system is no doubt struggling as well.

The tourism industry was knocked over in 2020 due to the border closures and absence of international travel. The resultant $3billion in lost revenue is not the only contributing factor to the struggle.

The RBF’s April Economic Review made for some tough reading with declines noted in visitor arrivals and mahogany production, investment and consumption activity remaining weak, a decline in job recruitment advertisements with the resultant net fall in compulsory FNPF membership and private sector credit falling for the ninth consecutive month.

Global crude oil prices fell due to reduced demand, although we did not see that reflected in Fiji, and liquidity increased to over $1billion with lending and deposit rates down as a consequence, but again not reflected in increased credit access if anecdotal information is anything to go by.

As our government and economists try to wade through the murky waters on the road back to economic survival, Fiji can take small comfort in knowing it is not alone in burgeoning debt levels and very little light at the end of a seemingly endless tunnel.

Countries around the world are grappling with the consequences of the pandemic, and the devastating socioeconomic impacts are apparent as governments struggle to protect the health and well-being of citizens and respond effectively to rising unemployment and drastic economic downturns.

COVID-19 and its many variants are raging their battles with devastating second and third waves exploding infection and death numbers compounding the many vaccines on offer that appear to be sabotaging the catch-up efforts for herd immunity strategies.

And for the most part, we humans appear to be winning, although that may depend on where you are in the world at any given time.

But at the end of this, the price paid to achieve success will be deemed exorbitant as globally, there have been 152,534,452 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 3,198,528 deaths, reported to the World Health Organisation.

As of 1 May 2021, a total of 1,045,850,203 vaccine doses have been administered and while this looks like a large number, it is sadly only 13 percent of the world’s total population.

While that puts things into perspective for many of us, it should also make all Fijians grateful for the far more positive vaccine opportunities that we have been provided here, thanks in no small part to donor agencies and international partners working closely with the Government.

But more importantly, perhaps we do not collectively appreciate the fragility of our tiny economy and its dependence on winning “the war”, as the good doctor called this current fight against the virus.

The toll on global industries, while heavy, was largely expected, but the toll on human populations has been less believable, probably due in no small part to us taking our existence for granted.

Fiji, despite her ability to punch well above her weight, is still only a small island state with limited resources at her disposal, unable to respond as quickly, recover adequately or safeguard her population without coordinated, international support.

World economies have been advised that the demand for change to our daily lives because of the pandemic and the adverse impact on global economic systems, requires a reciprocal and fundamental shift in development finance ecosystems as well.

Fiji and indeed, many Pacific Island Countries (PICs) may not be able to survive and recover from this crisis in the absence of adequate, timely, development finance support.

The Fiji Bureau of Statistics recently released a report on a survey conducted between January and February this year dealing with the challenges that businesses in Fiji were facing.

The respondents of the survey accounted for 70% of Fiji’s Total Gross output in the economy. Survey questions requested responses on business operations, changes in working hours and employment, revenue, capital investment and confirmation of business closures.

The survey’s results were sobering but not unexpected and indicated that 94% of the businesses interviewed were adversely affected by COVID-19.

It also showed that 87% of the businesses reported declines in business income with reported declines between $1 million – $5 million and 32% more than $5 million.

To ensure survival and manage business expenditures during the pandemic, the most reported measures undertaken included having to prioritise payments, renegotiation of building rentals, deferment of loan repayments and reduction in wages and salaries.

59% of the businesses surveyed had placed their staff on temporarily reduced working hours – implying that in every 10 businesses in Fiji, 6 businesses placed their staff on reduced hours during the pandemic.

Tourism businesses surveyed indicated an inability to cope in the early days of the border closures due to drastically reduced international customer demand and then subsequently moving to reduced staffing numbers and reviewing operational needs downwards.

Look no further than the tourism industry for examples of restrategising, the new normal, downsizing or rightsizing and multi-faceted operational budgets that change between non-operational weekdays and all-hands-on-deck weekends and holidays.

Building resilience as part of the building back better recommendations must be a serious consideration for Fiji. Going back to ‘business as usual’ would expose us to further shocks.

Governments and other public stakeholders must collaborate with the private sector to identify the best way forward. We need to be able to recognise and prioritise opportunities that will firmly set us on a path back to a more resilient recovery.

Not just recovery for recovery’s sake.

There must also be the willingness to identify how the private sector can support this course of action so that we will be able to attract the investments we need as a country and to create an economy that will be more stable, inclusive and sustainable in the long term.

The United Nations report on Socio-Economic Impacts of COVID-19 notes that the recovery from the crisis must lead to a “different global economy”, with a call to action that “countries must not only unite to beat the virus but also to tackle its profound consequences”.

And exactly how do we do this?

By “designing fiscal and monetary policies able to support the direct provision of resources to support workers and households, the provision of health and unemployment insurance, scaled-up social protection, and support to businesses to prevent bankruptcies and massive job losses”.

We must first survive before we can effectively move into recovery mode and this will mean we acknowledge that we need a hand to get back up again.

But more significantly, it means we must also acknowledge that we need to change what we do when we get back up again, as we inevitably will, and prepare to change key policies that support becoming a more resilient economy.

By: Fantasha Lockington – CEO, FHTA (Published in the Fiji Times on 6 May 2021)

FHTA, 30 April 2021 – As the authorities conduct their contact tracing for this current spike of COVID infections, one can only be both fascinated and wary of the journey that the virus has taken.

From the border quarantine facility to our suburban areas, the contagion has silently but surely latched itself on to unsuspecting hosts.

While some had called for a complete lockdown of Viti Levu from the earliest case, it is still a case of ‘better late than never.’ What many do not realise, however, is that for many in our population, a complete lockdown might also mean going without a meal and that while not often seen or experienced by the more fortunate, is a stark reality.

Many of us do not appreciate how difficult the work is for those on the medical teams doing testing or screening. Nor do we show our appreciation or acknowledge that they are helping to save our lives and those we love.

Instead, we are quick to criticize, poke fun at and ridicule what we do not understand or goes against what our preferred social media platform has led us to believe without facts.

Yet if we simply listened to the explanations, really listened; we can hear or read the information being provided that uses science to detail why we must follow the advised protocols.

There are countries around the world where the virus has exploded and killed hundreds of thousands. Yet, we know people amongst us who continue to deny there is a virus, will not get vaccinated or refuse to wear a mask.

Masks and other PPEs are the order of the day for now and maybe even into the foreseeable future, depending on how long we continue to keep the virus alive amongst us by disregarding the advice on what to do to ”Stop the Spread.”

We still have 1,043 people who have arrived from overseas and undergoing mandatory 14-day quarantine in government-supervised border quarantine facilities in Nadi. And we agree that just like other countries around the world, turning away your citizens is not an option.

Many countries including Australia and New Zealand have had to deal with many breaches, quite a few times over. Many cities in those countries got locked down, opened up then locked down again, putting far larger populations than ours at a commercial and personal disadvantage.

That we managed to go a whole year without a breach is commendable and almost unbelievable. But we can do so again if we all agree to work together to “Stop the Spread”

According to the MoHMS, a total of 43,487 COVID-19 laboratory tests have been conducted, with a daily average of 252 tests per day over the last 7 days, and a weekly average of 1,892 tests per week over the last 2 weeks. This has been ramped up with the new cases that were found in the Nasinu area recently.

Before the containment of the various regions, there had been an amazing response from locals becoming domestic tourists. And we know many have had to cancel planned weekends for Mother’s Day or the school holidays.

As we navigate our way slowly through this current lockdown, we have to keep the goal line insight and that is the reopening of borders. Naysayers may wish them closed for longer but economic experts will say that this just isn’t feasible in the long term.

FHTA is working with other stakeholders towards getting a sturdy framework for reopening drafted and implemented and a significant portion of this framework will depend on the complete vaccinations of all our tourism workers to keep them, their families and their communities safe. This means getting both injections of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that is already here.

This week is especially relevant for those in Fiji working to immunise the communities and the members of the public who are willing recipients. With the theme ‘Vaccines bring us closer’, World Immunization Week 2021 (April 24th-30th) aims to show how vaccination programmes connect us to the people, goals and moments that matter to us most, helping improve the health of everyone, everywhere throughout life

And while it also means that while health experts acknowledge that there is still insufficient vaccine supplies to cover the whole world, that we get used to the fact that any WHO-approved vaccine is acceptable to us in Fiji.

And while we are working towards getting our COVID-contained status back for Fiji, as Fijians we must also work on being better people, better neighbours and better communities by refusing to be part of those groups that seek to vilify people who work with those who have become infected.

Leave the medical people to deal with addressing any breaches because that is their expertise. Instead, we can treat those who have become unwittingly infected with the respect and dignity we would wish if they were our family members.

The hotel workers where the breach took place are not to blame and should not be treated any different to how we would wish to be treated, because they continue to work to keep returning Fijians feel safe and welcomed until they too can return to their own families.

If the current situation teaches us anything as Fijians, it is that we are still not practising our hand washing or sanitizing often enough. We are not worried about being in large crowds and we are still sharing cigarettes, kava bowls and other items that can pass the virus from one person to another.

We must not get complacent about our roles in keeping the spread of the virus to a minimum so that those with underlying conditions and our elderly are protected. If we looked around us, in our homes, offices, churches and communities, we all know someone who is living with diabetes, heart disease, kidney or liver disease, cancer or some other health issue.

These are the people we could potentially lose first. They must be the reason we heed the warning to stay at home and practice the COVID-safe guidelines.

It has been said that COVID-19 will never truly be eradicated and that we will have to learn to live with the virus. But we can try our best to make the best of the situation and that comes back to getting vaccinated and making sure that those in your family are vaccinated as well.

We completed a whole year before seeing positive cases in our communities so we know we can do it again.

The question is, can we reopen our borders and keep our communities safe at the same time? Yes, we definitely can. If you think about it, we have been doing exactly this all along with the repatriation of our citizens from overseas. It was simply on a much smaller scale.

Practice social distancing. Wash your hands frequently. Use your mask in public. Do not share things that are frequently touched. If you cannot afford sanitiser or disinfectants, use bleach diluted in water as our mothers and grandmothers did.

And stay home. We will get there faster if we all do the right thing.

By: Fantasha Lockington – CEO, FHTA (Published in the Fiji Times on 30 April 2021)

FHTA, 22 April 2021 – No sooner had Fiji celebrated a full year of being without a community transmitted case of COVID-19, we find ourselves in a situation very similar to the early days of our pandemic response.

The greater Nadi, as well as the greater Lautoka areas, have been locked down with no entry in or out and several relaxed restrictions have returned in full force.

This would be worrying for some but for the majority, many of us in the tourism industry, believe even a Fiji-wide, shorter-term but harsher restriction could have been enforced for a more rapid and sweeping response.

Because the one thing that we have now, that wasn’t available in 2020, is experience.

When our borders first closed and the curfew hours were longer and more limiting, there was understandable outrage and desperation from those affected.

We had numerous community cases in various locations and this added to the fear in the populace.

But it was primarily down to the swift response of the relevant authorities and disciplined forces that ensured that the fallout from our first wave was kept to a minimum.

We washed our hands more; we wore masks in public spaces and we bumped elbows to greet people. Generally, we took the advised risks as warranting appropriate, mitigative actioning, and we continued to practice the trained, new normal ways of working.

Just as the tourism industry was making inroads into getting the necessary planning and framework done towards borders reopening, today we find ourselves in similar waters.

Mobile fever clinics and situational command centres have been reactivated. Large gatherings are prohibited and only essential travel is recommended. Customer capacity has been reduced to 50% and high-risk businesses must now close for 14 days.

We have been maintaining the need to avoid complacency in all forms, with the advice to continue the trained discipline for washing hands frequently, using hand sanitisers whenever provided, social distancing and enhanced cleaning for high touch points and public areas. Added to this was the recently included promotion of the importance of getting vaccinated.

It is important, however, to point out at this stage that human nature being what it is, can be very difficult to take seriously, the real risks of getting COVID-19 infections spread in our communities.

Fiji has been so isolated from the global hot spots for mass COVID-19 related sickness, the hospitalisations of hundreds of thousands of people and so many related deaths that mass burials had to be organised quickly.

We must not forget our new COVID-safe guidelines and standard operating procedures.

We must not disregard the rules put in place by our Ministry of Health & Medical Services (MoHMS) and by the COVID Risk Mitigation Taskforce.

We cannot afford to get too comfortable with our roles as the country’s first line of defence against this deadly virus and its many variants.

Too many lives are at risk if we do. Too many livelihoods are at stake and our country and its economy will eventually bear the brunt of our collective non-compliance.

The world has changed too much for the ‘sega na leqa’ attitude to prevail in health-based settings where a breach could shut the country down or result in people dying.

Tourism Fiji’s Care Fiji Commitment (CFC) initiative that includes FHTA’s COVID Safe Guidelines are in place to ensure that our members are prepped and ready for (international) visitors is now more important than ever.

As we fight this invisible threat, we must continue to claw our way back to our initial plans. Because we must.

Our economy is struggling and there is increased unemployment.

Businesses and industries are finding it difficult to break even and breathe easy.

Fijians must be fully supportive of the efforts in place to practice enhanced hygiene protocols, acceptive of border control health checks as the “new normal” and understand the importance of why these are in place. These are all practices to keep our businesses, our communities, and our country safe.

Fiji’s vaccination programmes kicked off slowly but in typical Fijian fashion, the ‘last-minute’ rush was evident as impressive crowds gathered at vaccination stations for free inoculation.

Tourism operators supported the vaccine roll-out by ensuring their staff were aware of the correct information, got registered, were able to access the vaccination spots and offered their own support for transport, venues, accommodation and meals where required.

As we wait for the right time to open our borders or be included in recently launched travel bubbles, we are continuing to emphasise the importance for all our members to become fully CFC compliant and to have all their staff fully vaccinated.
We received more vaccines this week and FHTA is sure that these vaccines will be used up in no time as the MoHMS continues its great work in vaccinating the country.

But we cannot be undoing the good work being done by many with the ignorant or complacent attitude of others. Mistakes in high-risk situations like COVID can cost anything from lost economic productivity, education, business and worse – lives.

It has been a long twelve months and we find ourselves back at square one. But this time we know what is required of us and what we should and should not do. These are scary times and teamwork makes the dream work.

As difficult as it is, let’s ignore the naysayers and the misinformed and let’s strive to bring Fiji back. It is now more than a cliché. We really do need to work together to get our lives back.

By: Fantasha Lockington – CEO, FHTA (Published in the Fiji Times on 22 April 2021)

FHTA, 16 April 2021 – The phrase ‘travel bubble’ gets thrown around a lot these days. It has been in circulation since mid-2020 when global tourism and tourism-dependent economies started sitting down to plan recovery programmes following the pandemic fallout.

Closer to home, the long-awaited trans-Tasman travel bubble between New Zealand and Australia has now been announced amidst some eager anticipation by the Tasman neighbours and watchful interest from the rest of us in the Pacific. In this bubble, as of Monday, April 19, travellers from Australia will be able to arrive in New Zealand without having to serve the usual 14-day quarantine.

These bubbles have had their fair share of ups and downs. Initially planned for October 2020, it eventually turned into a one-way bubble when new COVID cases hit Australia. This allowed New Zealanders to travel to Australia but not the other way around.

There have been other bubbles planned in the region that also never eventuated because the pandemic situation was constantly evolving. New Zealand had agreed to open a bubble with the Cook Islands but despite several “almost there” discussions, this did not eventuate.

Fiji had announced its own earlier plans to have a “Bula Bubble” with our regional neighbours, but this too has yet to be formalized.

Hong Kong and Singapore discussed opening up a bubble last November, but this got called off only 24 hours before the actual commencement because of a sudden rise in cases in Hong Kong at the time.

Bubbles can be very fragile and need often complicated conditions agreed to, in place and well managed by the agreeing parties.

While the trans-Tasman travel bubble is a long time coming for both nations, it teeters on a razor’s edge with the confirmation of several new cases of COVID-19 at an Auckland quarantine facility, with New Zealand warning that flights to and from some Australian states could still be suspended in the event of local outbreaks.

Like Fiji, tourism was New Zealand’s biggest export earner, contributing $17.5 billion or 20.1% of New Zealand’s foreign exchange earnings for the year ended March 2020.

With over 5 million in population, it is estimated that 13.6% of the total number of people employed in New Zealand worked directly or indirectly in tourism. That means around 384,186 people were working in the travel and service industry.

It is therefore obvious that they need this travel bubble to go ahead and in Fiji, we can relate.

We also value our health and the safety of our people and we too are proud of our COVID-contained status, but we also recognise that we need to urgently get the economy rolling again. To do so safely is a complicated, mega pronged arrangement,

fraught with risks doubling for every agency included and involved in the border management process.

Therein lies the need for countries entering into any bubble arrangements requiring the confidence to keep each other’s citizens safe.

So, while they commence their travel bubble arrangements, we can observe from afar and note areas for improvement when our involvement is eventually confirmed.

The worst-case scenario from a travel bubble is a mass community cluster of infections and we just could not risk that, nor do we believe we could recover from it from a tourism perspective.

The risk of the devastating impacts from sickness and death on society and the heavy toll on our medical systems aside, risking our reputation as a safe destination is an extremely difficult place to come back from.

Understanding those risks and realizing where we need to focus as an industry, has been what we have been involving ourselves in over the last 12 months.

Initially working on survival strategies, looking for other avenues to support workers as well as manage expenses without the usual revenue streams through international visitors; tourism operators have struggled as an industry to keep going and remain positive.

There has been an amazing response from locals becoming domestic tourists who have been locked in, just as international visitors have been locked out, who have used the opportunity to experience some of the holiday offerings around Fiji.

The domestic tourism impact has been positive, albeit intermittent with occupancies going from 70% to 100% over the 4-day Easter weekend to either closed or a 10% occupancy the following weekend.

Unfortunately, those feast or famine situations only take place in only 40% of Fiji’s total tourism product offerings.

In the last year, we have worked closely with many government agencies to come to an understanding or enter into arrangements that consider tourism’s reduced revenue streams and the struggle to maintain compliance requirements, so long as mandatory safety requirements are met.

We are working closely with the Ministry of Health & Medical Services to safeguard our workers by encouraging our members to register their staff and support the provision of venues and transport to enable vaccinations.

Last year the introduction, training and implementation of the Care Fiji Commitment (CFC) took place and industry stakeholder numbers continue to increase as Tourism Fiji maintains their vigilant monitoring to ensure all operators get their approvals.

We are currently working to complete a framework for the initial Safe Travel Corridor in Fiji that may well be our first step to welcoming back visitors to our shores within specific zones. CFC compliance and vaccinations will be just some of the obligatory requirements.

We saw 146,905 arrivals into Fiji last year and most of these included repatriated citizens and residents having to isolate safely. Their quarantine stay was covered by Government then so there was very limited revenue coming into the economy as a result of this.

It makes sense, to us at least, that quarantine stays should be based on a “pay own way” basis now.

In 2019, tourism brought in FJ $2.065B and was the strongest in the third quarter of that year, with over FJ$1B in taxes also paid on top of that. A year later, it only brought in FJ $314.9M mostly due to the opening quarter before COVID, and we have no doubt many are starting to feel that shortage in revenue now across the country.

Fiji also plays an important regional role as medical supplies are warehoused in Fiji and we are often used as a hub for Pacific Humanitarian Pathway flights, which are part of the global COVID-19 supply chain system on their way to our Pacific Island neighbours.

We cannot stop now, having started with support for the vaccination roll-out, pushing out and extending the communication efforts on the vaccine through sharing the FAQs and other factual and positive information through tourism networks.

And we happily noted the positive uptake and eventual turning of that short-lived negative tide of anti-vaccination discussions on social media.

Our people will be ready – optimistic, vaccinated and ready to welcome visitors from Australia and New Zealand once we have convinced them we are ready to be included in their bubbles.

By: Fantasha Lockington – CEO, FHTA (Published in the Fiji Times on 16 April 2021)

FHTA, 8 April 2021 – This past Easter weekend was a great indication of how lucrative, in various patches, our Domestic Tourism market can be.

While it might not be at the previous levels of international visitor numbers, it was still a godsend for our members who welcomed these local guests with more staff on duty to ensure a great time was had by all.

Properties were buzzing with the influx of local visitors who sought to spend the anticipated four-day weekend away from their familiar surroundings.

Many hotel staff were on deck to tend to guests’ needs and this was the being experienced in Denarau, the greater Nadi area, the Mamanuca’s, the North and all along from the Coral Coast to the Sun Coast.

Domestic tourism and the added benefits from those in-country through the VIP and Blue Lanes, comforted workers who were happier to be working longer hours and being engaged in a range of activities across Fiji’s tourism’s holiday choices.

The response, therefore, has been wonderful particularly with families taking advantage of the specials that were promoted.

We also noted that many families who would normally have taken the time to join their overseas families used the opportunity to take a local holiday instead. This internal spending will circulate in the economy and bring smiles to suppliers and other tourism stakeholders who have all been ravaged by the year-long stagnation of international tourism.

Domestic tourism, as well as other initiatives like the VIP and Blue Lanes, is contributing to more employment and assisting operators to add to dwindling cash reserves that, in turn, pay bills and banks.

There is no doubt it is making a difference, but these holidays are intermittent and we still need to focus much stronger efforts to register and get vaccinated.

This is how everyone can help get Fiji’s borders to reopen safely.

The COVID virus is not going away, so our only hope is to add that extra layer of security by getting vaccinated against it. In our last Tourism Talanoa article, we stressed the importance of all (or most) of the nation being inoculated against COVID-19.

This week and into the following week, tourism staff are getting registered with the assistance of their employers and in consultation with the Ministry of Health and the RFMF COVID Response Unit, are preparing to get vaccinated.

Around 3,000 more tourism workers will be vaccinated to add to those in the airports, airlines and quarantine facilities that had already been first in line for the vaccines.

Tourism operators are working closely with the medical teams to complete registrations, facilitate venues, support transport requirements and ensure that their workers are provided with that added layer of safety.

This cannot be emphasized enough.

Frontliners in the industry are in direct contact with both international visitors and repatriated Fijians arriving in the country.

New COVID-safe guidelines have been implemented for their safety and this is coupled with strict arrival protocols in full personal protective equipment (PPE), depending on where in the tourism chain they are working.

When the industry opens up to wider groups of international guests, via specifically indicated safe travel zones initially and then eventually through fully opened borders, we do not expect our tourism operators or their suppliers to be using PPE’s because this will not be practical in the long term.

Along with Tourism Fiji, tourism stakeholders have supported the Ministry of Health’s communication efforts and provided updates and information on the vaccines that have included FAQs. We believe we can do more to support the wider roll-out of the vaccines to the general public by sharing our experiences on social media as well as our international communication platforms.

We are working on sharing vernacular translations of the FAQ’s widely and keeping the medical teams updated on our progress to ensure we can further support an efficient roll-out. But we’re not stopping there, because there is far too much still at stake.

As news breaks of a Trans-Tasman Bubble taking shape, Fiji too should be able to confirm the success of its COVID-contained status and vaccination uptake and be included in the bubble eventually.

Australia and New Zealand are not just key markets for Fiji’s international visitors. They are also where many of our families and friends live; many of whom we have been unable to visit or see physically. Those are also the countries we do more commercial business with and business travel has been replaced by Zoom calls for too long.

There is no denying that our economy is heavily dependent on tourism. So much so that tourism contributed 46% to Fiji’s annual GDP in 2019 and numbers 100,000+ in direct and indirect employment.

The Reserve Bank of Fiji estimates that tourism contributed around $1billion in government tax revenue and $2billion in foreign exchange earnings.

So, until our economy can diversify its reliance on a particular industry, we need international visitors back on our shores. As quickly and as safely as we can.

Ensuring we vaccinate the majority of our population will mitigate the risk of infections once borders are reopened.
But we need to do so with a clear, safe pathway to that reopening.

We hope that by working with the agencies tasked with Fiji’s health, security and safety, that we are not only doing as much as we can proactively to get the borders reopened quickly but that we are showing how the private sector can effectively work with the public sector to coordinate and address an urgent commitment to keeping Fiji safe.

By: Fantasha Lockington – CEO, FHTA (Published in the Fiji Times on 8 April 2021)

FHTA, 25 March 2021 – Twelve months can seem like a lifetime or it can fly by in an instant.

For Fiji’s tourism sector, it has certainly been the former. And we are not out of the woods yet.

This week marked a full year since the COVID pandemic forced the world into a lockdown and Fiji herself closed her borders.

Initially, there was great fear – of the unknown and the effects on people’s health and businesses, worsened weekly by the hibernating of many tourism businesses and the consequent shedding of jobs. This was replaced by months of uncertainty that continued as reports of illness and death escalated around the world.

An initial estimate of border closures being in place in Fiji for a month was revised to three months. The unpredictability of the new disease no-one had heard of before increased the already strange atmosphere that was permeating the larger global economies, while our small island states watched from afar, hoping they knew what they were doing.

After all, these were more progressive economies with vast budgets at their disposal with far larger populations who had access to the most advanced technologies and cutting edge scientific and medical knowledge. But we appeared to be collectively finding out more and more about the COVID-19 virus together, and it soon became evident that even the most advanced countries were not prepared and would make the most extraordinary mistakes in misjudging its threat and the consequent impact it would have on global economies and the freedom of movement and travel we all took for granted.

The race to find a vaccine rose in urgency as global death tolls rose and the speed with which it needed to be tested, approved and then manufactured for dissemination will probably go down in history as the most extraordinary and astounding narrative this century.

At home, thousands of people were made redundant or put on leave without pay pending the ability of their employer to once again be able to provide the relevant work. To provide that work, employers needed to be able to access their usual revenue streams that were effectively stopped when the borders were closed. Subsequently, that lack of revenue injection through receipts, taxes, wages and thus spending into the economy took its toll and our GDP dipped to record lows.

Fixed expenses remained and borrowers were finding it difficult to make loan payments due to a drastic reduction in, or no more income.

A curfew was imposed at the end of March to keep the COVID transmissions down and this curfew has remained to this day with many forgetting the reasons for it. In contrast, countries without curfews that failed to restrict people moving about unnecessarily found out the hard way that infections multiplied, and deaths increased.

It is also worth noting that it has been 336 days since our last community transmitted case and the recognition for what this means and how this positive outcome was achieved is rarely recognised as an excellent example of our medical authorities understanding very quickly what needed to be done and ensuring it was actioned quickly.

In the throes of the community transmitted cases, the cities of Lautoka and then Suva were effectively put on lockdown and cut-off from the rest of the country. This was a strange new concept to our younger generation and was also an extremely scary time for the older members of society.

The government was in the process of working out their new National Budget during the beginning of the border closures and the pandemic forced an adjustment of figures and the welcome introduction of some stop-gap solutions.

Workers were able to access their superannuation funds as income relief and while not considered very much, it was welcomed then and is still being appreciated now in the absence of more globally practised wage support schemes.

The tourism industry also welcomed some timely relief in terms of tax breaks that had been part of previous years lobbying efforts, as well as the much-awaited reduction in duty for many items that would assist in reducing various costs in food and beverage areas.

As a key tourism body, the Association has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that our members understood the constantly changing environment while working with all the relevant Government bodies to clarify, update or request support to enable tourism businesses to survive until the reopening of borders became tenable.

Many Fijians stuck outside our bubble after the border closure who were desperate to return home were finally allowed to do so after the implementation of new procedures allowed repatriation flights to commence that required a mandatory stay in quarantine facilities for a fortnight on arrival.

Employers raised their labour issues brought about by the pandemic with the amendment included in the Employment Relations Act recognizing it as an ‘Act of God’ providing some respite.

As face-to-face meetings decreased and events involving people gathering in numbers disappeared, there was a tremendous spike in digital meeting platforms. So much so that CEOs to first graders turned to on-line options like Zoom to stay connected, continue training or education and “Zoom” graduated to its current verb-status, replacing “hop on a video call.”

A year later, we are still grappling with ensuring our SME’s can continue to survive because a business must first survive to be in any position to be able to welcome international visitors back when borders do open. Those same businesses, as well as every other operator who is directly involved in tourism or involved as part of the industry’s large supply chain network, must also be prepared with its refreshed and updated product or service ready to go.

Our economy might be struggling, and we acknowledge there is increased unemployment and an extremely difficult time for most businesses and nearly every industry. But there are positives we must also acknowledge, appreciate, and not take for granted in contrast to other countries around the world.

We can still enjoy moving around freely without having to wear masks and in relatively socially distanced and acceptable crowd sizes. We can have a meal in a restaurant, play in a park or be a spectator at a game of rugby, soccer or cricket. Even movie theatres are open and events of various sizes are taking place.

These are all possible because we have been fully supportive of the efforts in place to practice enhanced hygiene protocols, acceptive of the border control health checks as the “new normal” and understand the importance of why these are in place. These are all practices to keep our businesses, our communities, and our country safe.

The Blue Lanes where yachts can arrive in Fiji and the Vacation in Paradise (VIP) Lanes, where international visitors can come in and use their isolated quarantine stay as part of their holiday, have been quietly successful tourism programs that have been in place for some time now.

Again, their success is a combination of how professionally managed the border security is between the border personnel and medical staff, as well as the tourism operator’s compliance with the very stringent requirements in place.

The arrival of the vaccines and their subsequent roll-out adds a further, important safety layer. While we wait for the most at-risk population to get vaccinated and the roll-out to eventually reach critical mass, we will continue doing whatever is necessary to prepare ourselves for when planes fly again, and the first international visitors touch down at Nadi Airport as part of our eventual recovery.

It has been a long twelve months. Often challenging, sometimes scary when first navigating areas differently from the rest of the world, but always positively.

As difficult as it is has always been, ignoring the negativity and focusing on the ability to survive, then revive, so we can all eventually thrive, remains tourism’s focus.

By: Fantasha Lockington – CEO, FHTA (Published in the Fiji Times on 25 March 2021)

FHTA, 18 March 2021 – Last week Fiji `made history as it joined the many countries that have begun vaccination programmes for their people and became one of the first few Pacific Island nations to do so.

The Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association (FHTA) welcomed the news that the first dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines is being administered to our frontline workers who include medical staff, disciplined forces involved in maintaining border security and COVID-safe operations, and relevant airline, airport, transport and quarantine hotel staff.

These frontliners have continuously put themselves at risk since the onset of border closures by being the first line of contact for repatriated citizens and residents and we commend them for their service in keeping Fiji safe. The country must also acknowledge with deep appreciation the many medical staff who have also been managing the successful, continued containment of border cases as and when they are confirmed, within the 14 days of their quarantine period.

The vaccine has been brought into the country as part of the COVAX facility initiative to distribute the vaccines to countries like Fiji and there is expected to be over 100,000 vaccine doses in total brought in-country, with more expected to be accessed to sufficiently cover our adult population.

This news has been greeted with and being discussed with much enthusiasm by tourism stakeholders.

The anticipation that vaccines would be eventually available was always going to be a game-changer for travel and tourism around the world.

For Fiji, an effective rollout will be critical for everyone’s health and safety, the revival of the tourism industry and thousands of people getting their jobs back.

FHTA has reiterated industry stakeholders’ support offered earlier to the Ministry of Health & Medical Services with the logistics of rolling out the vaccines and any other support including transport and communications.

After several lead-up meetings and the recent launch in Nadi of the first of several Tourism Talanoas expected to take place that will continue industry consultation forums; the Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Health officials were appraised of the type of support available that could enhance efficiencies, reduce costs and provide innovative solutions to accessing remote communities.

Let it be known that the Fiji tourism industry has been, and is ready to assist, and understands how critical it is to maintain Fiji’s COVID containment status and to continue to be recognised as a “safe destination.

The pace of recovery for the tourism sector will be directly linked to how quickly the majority of our population gets vaccinated and we acknowledge that this may take some time.

Countries around the world including New Zealand and Australia are now progressing their vaccination programs as quickly as they can, along with reviewing border reopening conditions and timeframes.

Anyone waiting for the economy to gear up, hoping to get their jobs back, or trying to get their business off the backburner should understand the need to support efforts to successfully access the balance of vaccine doses urgently needed for Fiji to stay aligned with vaccination programs taking place around the world.

This may be the one time that Fiji cannot afford to be different from the rest of the world. The COVID-19 virus is not leaving anytime soon, so we would be best prepared by being vaccinated against it.

In the 1950s and earlier. Polio was a feared, life-threatening disease. The Polio vaccine is now given to young children and over decades of continued vaccinations, the disease has been almost wiped out in countries around the world.

In Fiji, it is part of the list of vaccinations we ensure our children receive that are included in their health cards which are checked when reaching school entry age. We consider the list of required vaccines part of growing up safely in Fiji. They are not new, have become part of our lives so people do not turn to social media to question it.

So, recent fear-mongering on social media regarding the vaccine for a recently discovered disease that spreads very similarly to other airborne viruses damages the good that is being done to protect our population. Some of the false information being circulated has been somewhat disingenuous as well as cynical or it may be simply a fear of needles or the unknown, spurring the spreading of false information.

It must be noted that side-effects are always expected for any vaccine. Some of us carry the scars on our upper arms for vaccinations in high school while others had no reactions. Most of us laughed at those poor kids who fainted at the sight of the needle. Some became feverish later, but most did not and certainly, no-one ever died.

FHTA has continued to work closely with our members to ensure that they are always kept abreast of the recent relevant updates that affect or impact the tourism industry including the vaccination programme, with the widespread response from the industry indicating readiness, even impatience, to be next in line to get vaccinated.

However, while the vaccine adds another, deeper layer of protection, it is not a magic bullet that will allow us to go back to how things were pre-COVID. It has been widely accepted that it is highly unlikely things will ever go back to pre-COVID times. Too much has changed and the enforced pause on our daily lives and businesses has caused a re-evaluation of how we do almost everything.

We will therefore have to continue observing the COVID-safe guidelines of reduced crowding, protective masks, hand washing and sanitizing. At least until we can get confirmation that we have eliminated the virus. Which will never happen unless we are all vaccinated. And continuing with border closures for years to come is not an option for this industry. Or for Fiji’s economic recovery.

So, this is our new normal. Fiji can and will be on-par with the world in terms of keeping our people safe and being ready to confirm our COVID-contained, soon-to-be vaccinated status and nearly ready for international travel again.

And we simply cannot wait for that happier, safer day!

By: Fantasha Lockington – CEO, FHTA (Published in the Fiji Times on 18 March 2021)

FHTA, 12 March 2021 – Earlier this week, the world commemorated International Women’s Day with its theme of “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world,” which celebrates the tremendous efforts by women and girls around the world in shaping a more equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and highlights the gaps that remain.

For the tourism sector as well, we highlight the immense contribution of women to the industry.

Let us begin with some acknowledgements. Did you know that in most regions of the world, women make up the majority of the tourism workforces, but tend to be concentrated in the lower-paid and informal jobs in tourism?

In a 2018 Global Report on Women in Tourism, it was noted that 95% of the people employed in tourism around the world were women, yet they tended to be relegated to the lower-level positions and earned comparatively less than men.

As we continue to develop policies to enhance our economic development, we must not hesitate to empower women to participate fully in economic life.

This is essential to building strong economies; creating more stable and just societies; achieving internationally agreed goals for development, sustainability, and human rights; and improving the quality of life for women, and consequently, that of communities and countries they are part of.

For the tourism sector, the impact of greater gender equality and women’s empowerment would be highly beneficial, for the well-known reason that diverse and gender-equitable organizations usually perform better.

As one of the largest employers of women and young people in Fiji, tourism’s overall imbalance of gender representation in management positions is being addressed at all levels.

Part of the recognised reason for this imbalance comes from the very nature of tourism as an industry. To be a business player in this environment requires being open every day of the week, working long hours and managing teams that must deliver consistently great service. Or risk losing your competitive edge and eventually your customers.

Add to this the challenges of ensuring a holiday or special event can still take place despite adverse weather like cyclones, flooding or storm surges and the ensuing impact of these on power or water shutdowns, transportation links cut off and medical emergencies, and you get a sense of the strength of character and leadership qualities tourism managers are expected to have in spades.

And if you can do all this as well as repair a boat engine in time to get your guests out on the last flight before the borders shut, there is no doubt you can get a job with this industry tomorrow. Or, when it eventually opens.

That is not to say there aren’t already some formidable examples of female leadership in this space, only that there simply aren’t as many as there could be, probably because many women choose employment that allows them to continue to be closer to or more closely support their families. Choices, therefore, are more difficult for women.

But it isn’t just tourism that is lagging in its gender balance in management roles. However, tourism can be the leader in changing this as the world resets after the pandemic shutdowns and closures. So, as we have done before, we will continue to highlight in future Talanoa’s, some of our very experienced women leaders who have chosen this tough industry.

While it might be true that with the often 7-days-a-week job requirements, long hours and industry-related challenges; local women have had a more difficult time moving up the proverbial ladder, that’s not to say that it cannot or has not been done.

Women have ascended to top-level jobs in the past and will continue to do so in the future. The instances, however, are too far in between to be considered a revolution. Yet.

It has been said often enough before, that we should hire for attitude and train for skill.

To develop the tourism industry into a workforce of more inspiring local leaders, our ambitious youth must be encouraged to embrace positive, “can do” attitudes if they are serious about being in an industry that can throw the most experienced, or highly qualified manager unexpected curveballs, with a crisis seemingly always just around the corner.

Developing skills that only require sitting with a laptop accessing free wifi is not going to move Fiji from a developing island state into the transformative, progressive society Fiji is aspiring to become.

We need innovative young people to have the energy and will to contribute meaningfully to our development goals and be encouraged to do so in an inclusive environment that celebrates diversity.

The Global Report on Women in Tourism goes on to note that targeted interventions by public, private and civil society actors that include promoting equal pay, tackle sexual harassment and encourage recruitment of women into high-level employment helps to promote decent work for women.

Gender-sensitive policies at the national level increase women’s economic empowerment that is then more effectively implemented into sectors like tourism. While investment in skills training for women can lead to greater outcomes for gender equality.

As a progressive industry, albeit in a holding pattern currently, these issues are already in play and being seriously addressed at several different levels.

So, while in a said holding pattern, we welcome news of the first dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines into the country as part of the COVAX facility initiative to distribute the vaccines to countries like Fiji.

The first batch of vaccines has been earmarked for our frontline workers including medical staff, disciplined forces involved in maintaining border security and COVID-safe operations, and relevant airline, airport and transport staff. This was rolled out yesterday with several frontliners getting the first of two jabs.

There is expected to be over 100,000 vaccine doses in total brought in-country via the COVAX facility and we know that once again, the vast majority of the hard-working medical staff tasked with ensuring Fiji’s population is safely administered the required doses that will provide us with another important layer of safety against the virus, will be women.

Women who will be working long hours, managing anxious and often difficult crowds, while staying away from families and friends until their work is completed.

A measure of one’s passion for their work is often simply noting their time in that industry and their approach to each challenge that comes their way.

The tourism industry may not have much in common with health workers except for the high number of women employed in both sectors. They will therefore find kindred spirits who can match any need to keep going until the job is done.
Persevering, supporting and ready to make any changes needed once the pandemic dust settles. So, onwards and upwards, all women working towards personal, organizational and national goals.

We acknowledge you and everyone else that is hanging in there doing the best they can to preserve and prepare our side of paradise.

By: Fantasha Lockington – CEO, FHTA (Published in the Fiji Times on 12 March 2021)

FHTA, 4 March 2021 – A recent local article repeated a statement that around 2000 tourism workers, who have been on leave without pay due to the economic downturn in 2020, were expected to be made redundant soon.

While this was always been a strong possibility due to the safety measures Fiji put in place by shutting borders against the pandemic early last year, the consequent drying up of international visitors resulted in no work being able to be provided by many business operators.

Putting the overall challenges into perspective, the IMF Departmental Paper “Tourism in the Post-Pandemic World Economic -Challenges and Opportunities for Asia-Pacific and the Western Hemisphere” notes that the COVID-19 pandemic, is a global crisis like no other in modern history, that has led to a sudden stop in travel and a collapse in economic activity worldwide.

It further says, “As a major economic driver, tourism accounts for more than 10 percent of the global economy and in many countries a large share of exports and foreign exchange earnings. The industry is also highly interconnected; multiple sectors are dependent on its performance. The pandemic has had severe repercussions on the complex global tourism supply chain, putting millions of tourism jobs at risk. Informal and migrant workers, particularly women and youth, have suffered disproportionately from diminished employment opportunities and lack of access to social safety nets, leading to increased poverty and slowing progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals”.

The impact on tourism businesses and Fiji’s economy has meant that the more than $2b revenue-earning and tax income generation capacity has been severely curtailed. This has taken a huge financial toll on the tourism industry, and Fiji, as it has on every other country and economy with a heavy reliance on this industry.

Since April 2020, all operational requirements have had to be reviewed to ensure businesses could survive the drawn-out impact of the COVID-19 induced crisis for which no-one around the world could predict (and to a certain extent, still cannot) correctly predict its eventual end.

Like any crisis, every business has had to re-evaluate strategies, change direction, review costs and consider how it must survive the crisis to enable it to reemerge eventually in a relatively strong position to continue to operate when and if circumstances allowed it to operate again.

Where work could not be provided because a business was forced to close, employees had to be let go. Where work was able to be provided intermittently, work hours for employees had to be redistributed. Whether businesses were hovering between closure and specifically timed openings, deciding to focus on scheduled refurbishing or extensions or changing their usual operational focus; all have had to drastically reduce workforce numbers.

The Fiji Hotel & Tourism Association members have been provided guidance and advice to ensure correctly complied with the Employment Relations Act (ERA) regulations. The Association has worked diligently with its members and the Ministry of Employment to apply as far as possible, that fair and transparent options were offered to employees as part of the critically required business restructuring environment that the industry was forced to implement.

Of the approximately 110,000 employees we believe were affected, at least 40% of the total number were provided with reduced hours or rotational shift options based on drastically slashed room inventory being made available, intermittent transport services and other activities that had to be reduced by up to 80% initially.

Employee support from tourism operators has been provided without publicity for the most part throughout the country and initially commenced with care packages at the beginning of the crisis. Other support that included soft loans, accommodation until ferry services restarted, cash and food assistance during the many cyclones experienced and going out of their way to contact staff who had been let go earlier so they could access the Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) assistance, reflect the deep roots the industry has with the communities it operates from within.

With the eventual marketing of domestic tourism offering reduced rates to encourage local travel, the industry reached out, often with great difficulty, to reemploy a further 10% of employees for the weekends and holidays that are preferred.

By late 2020, the bulk of tourism employees had returned to their original homes. Many returned to farming available land, fishing or taking up home-based micro-businesses to support their families where alternative employment opportunities could not be found.

With a fortnightly FNPF payment to rely on and perhaps the support of new business ventures or family support, many tourism employees chose not to return to work for weekend-only work and reduced hours based on the currently limited demand. And continue to do so.

There are therefore fewer options available for an employer who has released his staff he currently does not need because he has insufficient or no work for them. What options are available if they have agreed to be on Leave Without Pay and choose not to return to work for the few hours a day they may be needed, and they represent a skill still required? Do you hire someone else to fix the plumbing, maintain the generator or keep the boat engine in working order?

Many tourism employers are scratching their heads considering it might have been a simpler option to have made all their staff redundant earlier, but they may have chosen not to do so initially due to staff loyalty, deep connections with the communities nearby from where their staff generally come from or simply because they know with certainty that they will need those same staff back again.

After all, he has provided the historical training, they understand the business operations and he cannot afford to start from scratch when the borders reopen as they inevitably will.

Yet businesses that took the bold and often painful option of mass redundancies earlier were heavily criticized with very little understanding of the background or reasoning behind this.

It is a vexing situation that no employment legislation or human resource expert could have foreseen or had simple answers for even 12 months into the crisis. Certainly, there are no precedents to fall back on. Each situation requires its own analysis that takes into consideration every aspect of the business needs, its location and organizational structure.

There are so many varying scenarios that MBA students would have hundreds of examples for which to apply their analytical problem-solving skills and still not come up with a generic solution that would be deemed acceptable to all concerned.
There are just as many stories of positivity and goodwill. As there are of the consequence of released tourism employees into other sectors. Chefs from hotels and resorts are making a remarkable difference around Fiji in the restaurants they have joined or personally opened.
Customer service, marketing and event management skills are being improved in many businesses. So, if you have been surprised lately with the friendly face or voice, the tastier food or food options, you might be experiencing the services of an ex-tourism worker who is grateful to have employment.

Human resourcing issues aside, the industry continues to dig deep to not just be able to remain in business but to ensure it can also stay compliant, safe and emerge still as strong and vibrant an industry as it was when it was forced into hibernation.
Fiji has a small population and despite its 300 plus islands, is a small country in comparison to its larger neighbours navigating the vaccination rollout. We, therefore, believe that the right vaccination strategy once implemented and successful, could be the impetus of a faster process to get back on our feet.

Herd immunity will be able to be achieved earlier than, for example, our tourism competitors in South East Asia who have more populous tourism-dependent economies.

This vision is feasible because our key tourism markets of Australia and New Zealand have begun their vaccination programmes and that bodes well for our tourism sector’s successful Blue Lanes and VIP lanes initiative.

As we make our way to maximizing vaccination across our population, we are also aware that several Pacific island states have not had any community transmissions of the virus, with many others having gone several hundred days without a local case.

So, the concept of a travel bubble with some regional neighbours, where quarantine-free travel between those with low or no incidence of COVID-19, could be closer to implementation as well.

For now, we continue to plan, adjust, look for amicable solutions with our mainly furloughed workforce and amend strategies so that when the opportunity arises, we are ready for whatever scenario we are faced with.

We know staying safe first is a priority and planning for our next steps comes a close second.

By: Fantasha Lockington – CEO, FHTA (Published in the Fiji Times on 4 March 2021)

FHTA, 26 February 2021 – “How many human beings have to die before some people understand the gravity of the situation?” The plea from British author Wayne Gerard Trotman is succinct but weighty.

That age-old belief that things will worsen before they improve rings true too as in a December 2020 briefing by the World Health Organization, that the ‘destiny’ of COVID-19 is for it to become endemic, rather than to disappear as many are hoping.
Simply put, that means that COVID becomes a part of our lives that will have to be adapted to a level that will be eventually considered ‘normal’.

Think back to post 9/11 airport protocols that when first imposed we vehemently opposed and criticised. Believe it or not, that was twenty (20) years ago and we have been observing travel protocols at airports and in aircraft and airlines that relate to the safety requirements that were put into place as a result. These are now considered normal.

So as Fiji endeavours to maintain its ‘COVID-contained’ status amid a sprinkling of confirmed cases at border quarantine facilities, we need to adopt the mindset that the changes that will have to be imposed for future travel as well as into our daily lives will be changing to protect our lives, our livelihoods and consequently our economy.

The United States reported this week that their total COVID-19 deaths have surpassed 500,000 and that is out of their confirmed cases of 27 million. That death toll figure is a sombre one especially for a small island nation like Fiji where that would translate to about 56% of our population.

WHO’s tally of the global death toll is at 2,462,911 out of a total of 111,102,016 confirmed cases. So, if one thing is certain in these most uncertain of times, it is that the virus is slowly but assuredly making its slow trek around the globe. Hitting some countries twice and even three times in devastating and waves that bring entire cities to a complete halt.

With COVID-19 recognised as a new coronavirus, there has not been sufficiently solid research or enough experience with its infection rates until now.

Around mid-2020, whilst the world was in the throes of the pandemic, Fiji was struggling with an outbreak of dengue and leptospirosis. At that time, we only recorded one COVID-related fatality, but there were four from dengue and 10 from leptospirosis.

So, while we are well aware of the issues that the world is currently facing, sometimes it is the lesser-known issues that relate the most to us in Fiji as a developing island economy.

We have done well to remain COVID contained, but the impacts of COVID on our economy has now been well-documented.
It is therefore heartening to see and often be part of support being offered for a range of people and businesses from all walks of life.

Initially support poured in that targeted tourism workers who had lost their jobs. Donors, development agencies, NGO’s and multinational organisations have looked for practical ways to provide guidance, funding, training and support to both industry-affected businesses and their employees.

Many initiatives have provided direct support as well as facilitating partnerships that create opportunities that benefit individual, groups and communities. These provide access to training, upskilling, direct financial assistance or financial literacy programs.

Connecting small businesses owners to tools, support networks and mentors is helping provide survival options. Thousands of unemployed Fijians are being assisted to look for alternative revenue channels, understand basic business principles in their new ventures or learn new skills.

People who were employed in the creative arts that relied on tourism are tapping into technical advice provided by a recent partnership of ILO and Market Development Facility (MDF) that provided support for Business Development Services.

It is not generally appreciated that dancers, entertainers including meke groups, singers, craftspeople like carvers, weavers and jewellery makers, children’s nannies and activities or fitness staff rely on tourism for employment but can get left out of formal Government support because they are part of the informal sector.

Several initiatives are now available in Fiji which supports sustainable economic development by targeting the unemployed sectors (both formal and informal), women’s groups, communities, SME’s, entrepreneurs and even first-time farmers.

Whatever we were doing before COVID hit, must be reevaluated to first survive the crisis – because we do not know how long it will last, and then tweaked first to determine whether that product or service is needed now for the market that has changed as a result of the crisis, and then reviewed again for the post-COVID timeframe when that market may again shift and change as a result of borders reopening eventually.

This is a key basic message that is being discussed and delivered during these support programs and training sessions.
Change is hard but survival is key for anyone considering being around in business for the years ahead that are expected to be extremely positive, especially for travel in the post COVID world.

So, while we remain protected with our borders still closed and the worst of the virus still far away, we know the floodgates could open once travel resumes. We are working hard behind the scenes to provide guidance, communication avenues and support where needed, and with the relevant agencies to survive the crisis and stay safe.

The Economist Intelligence Unit recently predicted that most low-income countries would not ‘have wide access to a vaccine before 2022–23”. While that paints a grim picture for small island nations’ immunization efforts, Fiji and her Pacific Island neighbours appear to have had better luck in accessing at least the first shipments of vaccines being made available through friendly larger neighbours and better networks.

Ben Franklin said “When you’ve finished changing, you’re finished” and he wasn’t even an entrepreneur or businessman.
Fijian tourism is evolving into its next stage, involuntarily as it has been from COVID. Fiji as a young country is also evolving, forced as well by the dynamics of COVID.

How we embrace the changes will determine our eventual success.

By: Fantasha Lockington – CEO, FHTA (Published in the Fiji Times on 26 February 2021)

FHTA, 18 February 2021 – Preparing to restart business at some stage this year from the imposed hibernation of the past year will be a challenge for many in tourism industries around the world.

In Fiji, this planning might not have started quite so urgently, but there is still much to do to ensure businesses survive for the next few months to thrive in what is expected to be high demand for international travel when borders eventually do open up,
As the nation gears up to this eventual opening of borders that many are hopeful will be later in the year, our tourism family continues to estimate the continued closure timeframes against their dwindling cash flows.

Some resorts have been able to open for a variety of reasons and under various conditions. These include providing quarantine facilities for Government for use by residents and permit holders returning on repatriation flights for 14 days each.

They also include offering residents the opportunity to experience a taste of our famous Fijian hospitality in beautiful surroundings at a fraction of the usual rates. Others are offering boutique holiday experiences to small groups of international visitors using the Vacation in Paradise (VIP) Lanes or Blue Lane corridors which require that 14 days be part of the journey that makes up their isolated quarantine confinement period.

The success of these available options has been defined by the adoption and adherence of the new COVID safe protocols and collaborating closely with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Tourism to coordinate arrivals, transfers and monitoring of testing requirements.

Confirmed COVID positive cases have generally been border quarantine cases, meaning they have arrived into the country and whilst in quarantine have been confirmed as positive through the required testing processes, so would have contracted the virus whilst overseas or on their way home.

There has been very little media coverage in Fiji and even around the world on the condition of people with COVID once confirmed as positive, what contributed to patients’ eventual recovery and how families have dealt with this.
Information is sparse at best and often speculative or through highly questionable social media sources.

While the devastation it caused to families and communities in Italy where extended families with inter-generational family structures are similar to Fiji, and initially in the US provided glimpses into how terrifying the virus could make life for entire countries, Fiji’s relative isolation has cushioned our understanding to a “not likely to happen to us” type scenario.

Perhaps that is why we are so complacent with learning to live with the expected new hygiene requirements and why many are often shocked to hear that we must learn to live with this virus despite the planned vaccination program rollouts here and world-wide.

Far more effective public awareness campaigns must be carried out to make keeping Fiji safe everyone’s business and not just be about hand-washing and coughing into elbows.

Many of us do not know what to expect if someone we lived with contracted the virus and have no understanding of how dangerous it could be if several family members got infected as a result.

In businesses and across entire industries, many have returned to pre-COVID conditions with handwashing not so strictly observed (the water is there but there is no soap in the dispenser), sanitiser gels have disappeared off counters and social distancing has become too hard to do.

Additionally, the initial registration of people entering buildings and getting their temperatures taken has started to disappear with only hotels, Nadi Airport and Fiji Airways demanding proof of the downloaded Care Fiji App to assist with contact tracing efforts.

In tourism businesses, however, these are practised diligently, reminded, trained and monitored. Face masks are expected to be worn and full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is donned in quarantine hotels, airport areas, transport and laundry handling facilities.

Passenger boats, transfer vehicles, airport architecture, aircraft interiors and hotel rooms and surroundings are being cleaned with specific virus-neutralizing cleaning equipment and disinfectants.

Will this be replicated across retail shops, restaurants, public transport, banks and other offices around Fiji? It must if these same businesses expect international visitors to use their services or expect local tourism workers who will come into contact with the visitors to use their services.

The extra precautions mean additional costs but are necessary so must be borne to maintain the practice until advised otherwise.

Fiji’s image is being meticulously rebuilt to add another layer of safety, security and preparedness for when borders reopen.
Destination Fiji continues to put in the hard work to ensure that Fiji remains an attractive destination that is planning its eventual safe reopening.

Marketing Fiji and competing with the rest of the world has never been simple, but marketing in the post COVID world has taken this to new complicated heights.

We must remain a vibrant, exciting holiday destination that can still appeal to our core markets and quintessential family segments while staying abreast of new trends and changing travel habits.

Adapting to understand and deliver conservational sustainability options, adventure and experiential travel while ensuring we can still deliver the expectations of younger travellers who will demand seamless connectivity, must now be integrated with
stronger messages of safety and security from an invisible virus that has the potential to kill thousands. It is a huge task for Tourism Fiji.

There is still much to do in terms of preparedness which is why a whole lot of consultation and discussion has been taking place between tourism stakeholders, Government bodies and agencies, non-government organisations and training institutions.

Safety first as always, with all the connotations of safety our new post COVID world demands before we are ready to meet and greet a whole new, changed world of travellers.

Helping one another achieve a higher level of safety and preparation should be everyone’s business. The tourism industry is collaborating closely with relevant Ministries to offer support in the logistics for the vaccine roll out if required.

Moving over 800,000 people around Fiji requires organisation, project and event management skills, access to transportation and communication services. We just happen to have that exact experience and those very skills in our toolkit.

And we know how to do this safely too.

By: Fantasha Lockington – CEO, FHTA (Published in the Fiji Times on 18 February 2021)

FHTA, 11 February 2021 – Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw said, “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

And so, change we must, and we shall.

The human toll on the environment has come into focus in recent times thanks to the current health situation around the world. The comes as improvements in air quality and pollution have been observed while the world has been on pause, from blue skies in Delhi to clear waterways in Venice.

The global lockdown caused a decline in transport use, electricity demand, and industry activity, in turn leading to an 8% forecast reduction in CO2 emissions in 2020, the largest fall since the Second World War.

Moreover, for the first time in history, US oil prices went negative in April 2020; with global oil demand forecast to drop by 9% with consumption at 2012 levels. During its nationwide quarantine, China experienced a 40% year on year drop in nitrogen dioxide in January and February, equating to removing 190,000 cars; as well as an 11.4% increase in “good air quality days across 337 cities.

Yet, despite the clear skies and clean air, the negative impacts of having travel come to a standstill cannot be underestimated. Indeed, there have been devastating social, economic, and environmental impacts resulting from the absence of visitors during COVID-19.

For instance, there has been an increase in illegal fishing and poaching in reserves as people are trying to survive and provide for their families have lost their livelihoods. In effect, sustainable tourism plays a key role in sustaining and preserving natural habitats and protected areas, with research suggesting that wildlife tourism contributed $344 billion to the global economy in 2018.

A renewed interest in environmentally conscious travel, especially in eco-tourism areas, is expected to be the main driving force for the travellers of the near-future. These same visitors will also emphasize holidays and destinations to reduce their environmental footprint and that includes the use of water and energy. It will also include the reduction of waste creation and its responsible disposal.

According to a Publicis Sapient survey, 58% of respondents said they are thinking more about the environment and sustainability now compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic began. As travellers increasingly demand the greening of tourism and an alignment with their values, there is an opportunity to recognise companies and destinations on their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance.

A recent study from hotel room offer platform Hoo found that 50% of people surveyed would opt for a destination with better air quality, even if it meant travelling for longer. More notable is that 48% of the total respondents stated that they would pay more money to travel to that destination.

Would that apply to even our little island paradise Fiji, in the middle of the South Pacific?

Yes, indeed. If these travellers act on their intentions when borders open, we could use our clean air quality as a selling point to guests from these faraway lands.

Everyone has seen how the tourism sector around the world has been severely impacted, seemingly overnight. Many of our tourism businesses were forced to close temporarily, often, unfortunately, escalating into permanent closures.

Sustainability also involves economic growth and whether it can remain viable, continue to grow or decline because the industries the economy relied on were not themselves resilient enough to survive a major crisis like COVID.

To recover faster, experience has shown the importance of a globally coordinated approach with public-private cooperation, the need to enhance the current seamless travel experience, enacting global protocols for health & hygiene, to rebuild the trust of travellers and embracing the acceleration of technological transformations.

Fiji’s tourism industry is making use of this opportunity to come together and enhance our collective approach to ensure the sustainability of the industry, with all the experience, garnered over the past year.

While some resilient businesses remained open, they still only saw limited activity and even this was experienced in sporadic bursts over long weekends, school and national holidays.

Fiji’s Care Fiji Commitment (CFC) has now gained recognition from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and it is, therefore, pleasing to see that the combined efforts of Tourism Fiji and the Fiji Hotel & Tourism Association (FHTA), that this recognition now means that our tourism operators who have made the Care Fiji Commitment are now able to access both the CFC branding tools and the globally recognised WTTC ‘Safe Travels’ stamp.

While FHTA’s assistance and support of the CFC have been usually in the background, it has been critical to ensuring that industry practices were correctly aligned to the Fijian Government’s COVID-19 Safe Guidelines for tourism businesses and that the Action Plans developed were applicable, practical and enforceable.

For tourism businesses to participate in the programme, they must nominate a Wellness Ambassador, undertake extensive training on COVID-19 safe best practices and develop a comprehensive action plan that gets tested to confirm alignment.
There is clearly a collective commitment from the industry to protect our tourism staff, our communities, as well as build the confidence and safety of our visitors when they return.

Simultaneously, the industry is also actively pursuing its own sustainability and survival because it will not be sufficient to simply survive the COVID crisis.

It is equally critical that the industry emerges out of it ready to embrace the new normal in terms of safety protocols and to remain at its highest standards for compliance, service, and worldwide competitiveness. Additionally, it must also survive to be marketable as a visitor attraction, accommodation, activity, service provider and destination.

Consider therefore that many affected businesses having reviewed its cost structure at minimal operational status, reduced its workforce, limited its outsourcing, ensured it is incorporating what reduced tax incentives have been offered and reduced its rates to be attractive to the domestic market; must still pay all the annually required licencing, registration and regulatory compliance fees if they want to remain in business legally.

Because there are no across the board discounts for fees and licenses, FHTA and the Society of Travel Associates in Fiji (SOFTA) are meeting with government agencies to share information on the status of the industry and its need to remain sustainable, fully compliant and primed and ready for when borders reopen.

To be ready to meet the pent-up demand for international travel to destinations like Fiji that offer many of the sustainable tourism focused activities, community living, accommodation options and pristine environments that go hand in hand with cleaner air and healthy marine ecosystems; the industry needs support now to stay alive and in prime condition.

While only a few of our hotel properties are franchise-based, they collectively make up the larger inventory holders and usually employ larger numbers. However, far more are locally owned and are part of Fiji’s usually vibrant SME landscape that has been effectively hibernated for now, pending the restart of international travel.

The collective impact on small businesses that emerge because of tourism’s demand, the creation of wide-ranging entrepreneurship, increased supply lines and the resulting opportunities for women, youth and informal workers cannot be ignored and will quite naturally come back again.

In effect, women account for 54% of employment in the sector, compared to 39% for the global economy, and employs almost twice as many youths as in other sectors. Our tourism sector also contributes significantly to local surrounding communities, supporting employment and income generation, local resource preservation and access to quality infrastructure.

A sustainable and balanced industry can give 100,000 people their jobs back and a substantially slowed economy a much-needed kick start.

To really appreciate the impact, keep in mind that 100,000 people each have at least 5 people they in turn support.

We must support the industry now to be able to survive these next few months, even as we have dodged, ducked and waded through the last four storms and counting.

By: Fantasha Lockington – CEO, FHTA (Published in the Fiji Times on 11 February 2021)