Tourism Talanoa: No Time for Complacency

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)