FHTA Tourism Talanoa: Tourism 2.0

Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association, 5 September 2024 – Fiji’s tourism industry has long been intertwined with our nation’s identity, blending its natural beauty with the warmth of our people.

Over the past seven decades, this sector has evolved from a modest collection of beach resorts into a vital economic pillar, significantly contributing to the nation’s GDP and providing livelihoods for thousands of Fijians.

As we enter the era of “Tourism 2.0”, there’s a sense of both reflection and anticipation.

While the stunning natural landscapes remain a constant draw, the global tourism landscape is shifting rapidly.

Tourism 2.0 represents not just a continuation of what has been but an elevation to competing fiercely at a global level —demanding innovation and adaptation to new challenges and opportunities.

Embracing change while preserving what makes Fiji unique, requires strength and belief in what is required to enable both, while accepting that this is often easier said than done.

The roots of Fiji’s tourism industry run deep, dating back to a time when international
travel was just becoming accessible.

This initial interest laid the groundwork for what would become a cornerstone of Fiji’s economy and despite being around for as long as the sugar industry has been, it is not widely appreciated just how regulated it is – and therefore how connected tourism businesses are to almost every regulatory agency.

This provides us with some deep insights into doing business in Fiji and the reason we can use these insights to bring related challenges to government so we can address the issues, collaborate on solutions, and create the eventual economic gains we know we can influence.

Over the years, tourism has steadily expanded, growing in sophistication and scope, with luxury resorts, world-class diving, and rich cultural experiences attracting visitors from around the globe.

The Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association (FHTA) has been critical in the monitoring of this growth, tracking its often-stymied development, raising the variety of challenges from this diverse segmented industry, that even when being ignored, has always been central to the creation of solutions for its continued growth.

Our Association members do not just include hotels & resorts – they include cruise companies, water & land transportation, activity and experience providers, marine, aviation and dive operators.

They also include an extensive range of suppliers to tourism – construction, marine engineering, food & beverage suppliers, international trade commissions, accounting & law firms, aviation and even high commissions and media organisations.

All connected somehow to tourism either directly or indirectly and therefore regularly updated in our weekly newsletters, awareness sessions that share information, updates of compliance requirements, access to daily weather & climate information and the provision of alerts especially during times of national emergencies.

We even warn our members to be aware of increasing drought conditions and to prepare accordingly, because we do not believe the agencies that are tasked to do this at a national level react quickly enough to the drier than normal conditions being described in the metrological office’s clear indications of this.

The result is a better prepared industry with its diverse supply networks, exemplified again in the recent water rationing situation that occurred recently that was both sudden and short.

Sprung on the nation, the water rationing was just as quickly removed when the heavens opened up in apparent protest, and also experienced with the central division’s power shut down earlier this week that also took many by surprise.

Prepared businesses were able to function as normal, while productivity for other sectors took another dive.

Insight into challenges whether further along on the horizon or coming in thick and fast, allow us to bring these to relevant government agency or ministerial attention.

For example we have been raising our collective concern for some time now on the skilled labour gaps getting more critical and with the immediate solutions to bring in foreign labour to fill these gaps uncovering the deeper challenges that the immigration processing then identified.

Areas that have been creatively looked into for immediate and longer-term solutions that could unblock Fiji’s potential to improve its investor climate, more rapidly increase its economic diversification and get long ignored, but critical infrastructure planning off the ground, have all required a 360 degree environmental scan to appreciate how deeply entrenched the blockages were.

For example – why have we not better understood the various industry demands – not just tourisms’, but manufacturing, construction, IT and agriculture, amongst others – for vocational skills? And how do we steer our way back to delivering according to what these demands really are?

This requires deep dives into how and where educational curriculums & training programs are being delivered and to ask educators, trainers and academics whether what they’re delivering dovetails with what Fiji’s economic development plans are.

Or we risk a higher cost to these plans because success will require the importation of 80% of the labour required to deliver these plans. If not more.

But challenges like the faster loss of skilled labour, forces the private sector to create its own solutions – by doing more in-house training, by starting their own training academies, by looking for skills overseas.

And that is simply a reflection of why tourism is so successful – it is a demanding, hungry, resilient and constantly evolving industry.

It must be to stay relevant and competitive.

This resilience and hunger drives its productivity and aspirations – and through this – the ability to quickly gauge where the bottlenecks exist, what will hold the industry and its major developments back, and what the potential and emerging risks are.

But more importantly, where the opportunities are for growth.

By fostering collaboration with government bodies and stakeholders, FHTA has played a pivotal role in navigating regulatory complexities, advocating for sustainable tourism policies, and driving the industry’s success.

Where we can; we help to change mindsets and perceptions about how tourism works, how it impacts the economy, supports the communities it is fundamentally connected to and therefore part of, through its land lease arrangements, locations, and huge need for workers as a service industry, and also its increasing demand for fresh produce.

As we move forward, our role in guiding the industry through new challenges remains as crucial as ever, to be instrumental in navigating the complex regulatory landscape that the industry finds itself often hamstrung and limited by.

We continue to remind regulatory bodies that they must make compliance processes simpler to enable everyone to pay taxes on time, access proper licensing, submit applications, or pay required fees and fines.

If you make compliance frameworks complicated, you are forcing businesses to be non-compliant – because it is easier to be non-compliant. In the same manner that providing bins to dispose of your rubbish enables keeping our environments cleaner.

Make it easy to do the right thing.

There are significant steps being undertaken to address climate change, recognizing that sustainability is key to tourism’s future.

Public-private partnerships are laying the foundation for this sustainability journey with the government recognising the urgent need for the necessary infrastructure and regulatory support while the private sector drives innovation.

We believe Fiji is on the brink of a new era in tourism, one filled with opportunities to set a global example in building an industry that is not just economically successful but also environmentally responsible and socially inclusive.

The decisions we make today will shape a future where real diversification of the economy will be experienced that will support the country when climate change and adverse weather impacts tourism’s higher earning ability.

But as this industry thrives for now and probably well into the future, offering enriching experiences for visitors and lasting benefits for the community and environment; the time for planning and activating those diversification and process simplification plans has never been so critical.

While the future looks as bright and sunny as it does now.
Fantasha Lockington – CEO, FHTA (Published in the Fiji Times on 5 September 2024)