New Zealand is Fiji’s biggest market per capita, and the tourism body wants to work closely with the Kiwi trade to continue the momentum.
“By head of population, New Zealand is Fiji’s strongest per forming market,” says Tourism Fiji ceo Dr Paresh Pant. “That’s some thing that Tourism Fiji and industry partners have worked hard to build over many, many decades.”
Overall demand for Fiji has sky rocketed, but at the same time the market conditions in New Zealand have moderated, says Pant, with visitation in 2025 slightly down on 2024.
“As people recalibrate, I don’t think the love affair with Fiji has waned. I think it’s a case of Kiwis, instead of taking three trips to Fiji per year, maybe they’re just cutting back on one.”
Pant is looking to the trade to give Kiwis ‘compelling reasons’ to visit Fiji and is targeting 2026 growth on its 2024 visitor numbers, with more optimistic targets for 2027.
. . . Matai Reboot
Tourism Fiji is reboot its agent famil specialist program, launching Matai 3.0 in the second half of this year, with a goal of encouraging two-way communication. Agents will be able to give feedback, designed to help Tourism Fiji to improve modules and customise training by country.
“The hardworking team led by Sonya and Ana, they are doing the utmost, but you need more goodwill supporters of Fiji, and for goodwill supporters of Fiji, there’s none better than the travel trade; and it’s up to us to give them a compelling reason to use the platform we provide.””
There will also be more famils, says Pant, with a goal of getting more Kiwis to experience Fiji and its styles of travel from soft adventure to small ship cruising and active holidays. “We need to have our advocates onboard,” he says of agents.
Pant says this is especially true in the current climate. Uncertain times bring the value of the travel agent to the front, he adds.
“This is why through thick and thin over the years we’ve always had a significant part of our budget devoted towards things such as famils, product updates, road shows, trade shows, just to ensure that we have that relationship with the agent,” he says.
“I think fundamentally we see them as an extension of what we do…”
