It has been seven years since I have travelled to Fiji. I was keen to explore the new developments at Denarau Island and reorientate myself after such a long absence.
Fiji latest coup has been generally well received by the local population and has been described as a very smooth coup. Apart from the occasional military road block there is little evidence of military muscle and in true Fijian style one of these road blocks was manned by a soldier asleep behind his machine gun. 
As reported earlier, visitor arrival numbers suffer during this political unrest, however the Fiji visitors bureau is hoping the industry will recover by June and arrival numbers will once again be over the 50 000 per month figure.
The bureau has reported that tourist arrivals were better than forecast. In January 26 000 visitors were forecast to arrive with actual numbers exceeding 35 000. Februarys forecasted 26 000 visitor arrivals resulted in 34 000 arrivals.
Bureau chief executive Viliame Gavoka said that although visitor arrivals have been better that expected this did not reflect in high accommodation occupancy rates. Mr Gavoka commented that high occupancy rates can only be achieved with arrival figures of 50 000 plus.
Fiji has in recent years seen the building of many new resorts that were planed on a projected arrival figure of 50 – 60 000 visitors per month. The present visitor arrivals have resulted in lean times for the accommodation industry that was very apparent among the Denarua Island resorts. During our tour of hotels it was evident that occupancy was around the 20 to 35% range with many staff suspended until the rates improve.
With another 300 rooms planed for completion in July 2007 on Denarua Island and many more large hotel developments in progress along the Coral Coast, Fijis occupancy rates look precarious even with the predicted rebound in visitor arrivals.
Tags: Fiji Travel
I noticed that New Zealand Government has extended the travel advisory warning . I am planing a 5 day transit stop over in June on the way to Auckland. Is it safe or have things escalated there?