Tourism earned $420.3 million in the first quarter of 2023, a significant increase from the same period in 2022. In its June 2023 Quarterly Review released this week, the Reserve Bank of Fiji (RBF) attributed this to the strong post-COVID recovery of the tourism market.
“The significant annual growth reflects the strengthening of tourist arrivals and tourist-related services following a recovery over the same period in 2022. As a portion of 2019, earnings have surpassed the pre- pandemic level by 114.6 per cent,” RBF said.
Despite the weak global economy, the Fijian economy is expecting an 8 per cent tourism-led economic growth this year, an upward revision from 6 per cent earlier.
“The upward revision is reflective of the higher-than-anticipated growth in tourism and related sectors. The key sectors contributing to the upward growth projection are the accommodation & food services; transport and storage; agriculture; manufacturing; wholesale and retail sales; finance and insurance; administrative services; construction; and net indirect taxes,” RBF said.
“The 2022 growth estimate (of 18.6 per cent) was also revised up from the previous projection of 15.6 per cent, given the better-than-expected rebound in the service sector and higher net indirect taxes. Going forward, the domestic economy is expected to return to its pre-pandemic trend, with an anticipated expansion of 3.8 per cent and 3.0 per cent in 2024 and 2025, respectively.
“Sectoral performances in the June quarter were generally positive, with tourism continuing to be the primary catalyst in the economic recovery.”
Cumulative to June, 417,852 tourists were received (up 103.3 per cent), surpassing the corresponding 2019 pre-pandemic level of 407,495 visitors.
As a comparison of recovery to pre-pandemic level, arrivals from Australia, New Zealand and North America have surpassed the 2019 visitor level by 122.3 per cent, 110.1 per cent and 106.3 per cent respectively.
Arrivals from other source markets increased by 64.4 per cent, but are still trending below the pre-pandemic levels and “may improve, considering Fiji Airways’ resumption of all their destination flights and new service routes added to Vancouver and Canberra”.
“Additionally, the increase in tourism marketing grant to $30 million (from $22m) in the new budget allocation is expected to support the tourism sector,” RBF said.
