THE AUSSIE INVASION
Figures released this week by Tourism Fiji show a total of 27,531 Australians visited Fiji in October, that figure eclipsing the previous record of 26,342 set in September 2009 by 1189. The October 2009 result brings Fiji’s Australian visitor tally for the year to 189,603, now just 2.3 per cent down on the 194,063 figure achieved for the January – October period last year.

Tourism Fiji regional director Australia Paresh Pant said he was confident this deficit would be fully corrected by year’s end, based on preliminary figures advised by the NTO’s airline partners for November.

All of these, he said, had registered extremely positive load factors on the Australia-Fiji sector throughout the month and into early December.

“In the face of everything that has come our way in 2009, our Australian visitor arrivals figures have continued to build exponentially and are a huge cry from the huge drop we recorded in the first three months of this year,” he said.

“From our side the fact that more than 27,500 Australians have chosen to visit Fiji in the space of just one month represents a huge vote of confidence from this market.”

CHINESE tourist arrivals in Fiji have increased over the last couple of months – rising 14.4 per cent from 8842 people to 10,114.

Tourism Fiji chief executive Jo Tuamoto said for a new market like China, the figures were extremely positive. He said for the month of October last year, Fiji welcomed 53,138 international visitors — a 7.2 per cent increase over the 49,586 achieved the same period in 2008.

He said the figure took the total international numbers for January to October 2009 to 443,703.