Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association, 31 May 2025 – If there’s one place that should be buzzing with pride, progress, and polish, it is Nadi Town—our dusty little Western town that has yearned to be recognised as a city for many years.
As the gateway to Fiji, Nadi is the first impression for most international visitors. As the centre of Fiji’s most visually vibrant industry, it is expected to represent everything our beautiful country stands for as the first and last impression of the over 2 million passengers who pass through Nadi Airport annually.
Tourism has brought us record-breaking numbers, significant economic growth, and immense potential. But we cannot pretend that Nadi, as a town, has risen to meet the challenge of being the face of this growth, especially considering that tourism is not just doing well – it is thriving.
In 2024, visitor arrivals surged to historic highs, growing by 5.7% over the previous year and contributing a massive 2.9 percentage points to our 3.5% GDP growth. Hotel occupancy hit peaks of 90% during the season, throwing cold water on concerns that Fiji was outpricing itself, and tourism earnings rose by nearly 5%.
That’s a solid indicator that the world still wants what Fiji has to offer — our people with their natural ability to revel in and share happiness, our culture, our natural offerings, and our unique brand of hospitality. Fiji Airways continues to connect us to more markets with optimism, confidence and substantial grit for a small, Pacific Island airline compared to its larger global competitors. While the Asian Development Bank (ADB) predicts continued GDP growth of 3.0% this year, with tourism leading the charge.
While it should be cause for celebration, this must be tempered as usual with some cold, hard realism. We are growing, yes. But we’re also struggling to address some confronting challenges.
Our accommodation inventory is limited, given the increased seat capacity the national airline now has, even with over 3,500 new rooms in several stages of development.
These projects are being slowed by bureaucratic inefficiencies — outdated legislation, lengthy approval processes, and excessive red tape slowing down productivity with an underperforming public sector that has been difficult to convince could significantly improve efficiency.
And all the while, our operational costs rise, and the regulatory environment continues to hit snags despite many ministries’ best efforts to move processes onto digital platforms. All businesses, regardless of industry, are being squeezed. We’ve seen a 54% increase in wages over the last three years. We’re paying more for imports, with tourism increasing its reliance on fresh produce from 40% to 60%. Employers are losing skilled staff to overseas markets. And to fill the gap, they’re training more, investing in better recruitment and retention, and increasingly relying on foreign skilled workers — not by choice, but by necessity.
At the same time, we’re watching legislative reforms roll in with tokenistic consultation.
Key changes to the Employment Relations Act, the WorkCare Bill, and the Accident Compensation Bill have left employers feeling sidelined and frustrated. And there is, of course, the misuse of the FNU Levy — a training levy meant to upskill our workforce that’s now also paying for accident compensation and public health expenses, leading employers to ask whether they are effectively funding Governments social responsibilities.
While much has been said about the negative impacts of outgoing skills, we cannot stop people from seeking better opportunities abroad because this is a global reality.
But we can take ownership of our own development plans. If we’re helping our workforce leave the country, then we must also make it easier for skilled workers to come in. Yet, the process for bringing in foreign talent remains convoluted and painfully slow.
Countries that make it easier to attract skilled foreign workers understand the many advantages for businesses and their economies – they fill skilled gaps, boost productivity and innovation through their diverse experiences, strengthen economic growth and enhance global competitiveness. Why wouldn’t Fiji want these economic positives?
With 3,500 new hotel rooms on the horizon, we’ll need over 2,300 additional staff — chefs, housekeepers, engineers, service teams, and managers — to support these new developments, and that is only after probably the same number of staff needed to get these developments off the ground and open. Where will we find these skills?
The same question applies to the development of Nadi itself. While the areas around the town are booming — from Wailoaloa to Votualevu — Nadi Town is being left behind because it might be too outwardly focused.
The back road to Denarau is bustling, the shopping and coffee spots are thriving, and new residential and commercial zones are sprouting up everywhere including Naisoso, from the Airport to Sabeto, around the airport areas from Legalega to Namaka, even from outside Nadi Town from the Suva end of the bridge all the way to Malolo, Korovuto and beyond.
Yet, Nadi Town still looks like it’s stuck in the ‘90s. The town has no clear traffic direction, having changed its mind twice on the matter, no cohesive development plan, and no sense of pride from its business community. Parking remains an unsolved problem, signage is poor, touting and harassment of visitors continue unchecked, and the town looks dusty, neglected, and unwelcoming. The river, which floods routinely, is choked with debris, and surrounded by a dismal landscape that discourages rather than inspires from both ends of the town.
If Nadi wants to be a city, it must look and feel like one. There are no creative beautification efforts at the town entrances or along its short streets, where traffic lights routinely stop working. The decades-long plan to extend the town’s boundaries remains stalled, and lamp posts and streetlights that have fallen over or stop working simply remain that way. There’s no cohesive tourism experience being curated from within the town’s boundaries, with very little that suggests a council or business community fully understands its unique role in being an active part of the tourism economy.
All the while, visitors — and increasingly, locals — find it easier to skip Nadi altogether and go straight to Lautoka, Denarau or Sigatoka. Without serious intervention, this town will be bypassed altogether — not just figuratively, but literally. This should be a wake-up call as we allow this flood-prone town to be left behind with development going on around it, offering alternative options for commercial, residential, entertainment and attractions that are far more inviting. If Nadi doesn’t get its act together, it will be left behind as other parts of the Western Division race ahead.
We can and must do better — at every level. We need the council to care more about what Nadi looks like. We need more parking solutions, better traffic management, cleaner streets, improved safety, and real beautification projects that welcome visitors to stay longer than the few minutes it takes to bypass it. We need to make Nadi a town that reflects the vibrancy and promise of the industry that drives it.
Tourism is not just Fiji’s largest economic contributor — it is our opportunity. It’s our platform to share our culture, our environment and our people with the world. But if we’re not strategic, collaborative and bold, we’ll squander that opportunity, and we are far too committed to ensuring the industry continues to thrive, while taking as many people, communities and sectors along with us as we can.
But we cannot do it alone, and it is not always the government’s job. We need every stakeholder — from policymakers and public servants to local businesses and community leaders — to lift with us.
Nadi Town must either rise alongside tourism or be left behind permanently with a bypass road.
Fantasha Lockington – CEO, FHTA (Published in the Fiji Times on 31 May 2025)
Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association
The Voice of the Industry
