Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association

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)