Fiji’s pipeline of hotel projects is enough to add close to 5000 rooms over the next two to three years and ease capacity constraints in the tourism industry.
These rooms are expected to start becoming available within the next two to three years, said Investment Fiji chairwoman Jenny Seeto.
“The industry needs about 5000 rooms so we have in the pipeline close to 5000 rooms already,” she said in an interview with The Fiji Times.
“Investment Fiji has worked with Tourism Fiji to find investors to come into Fiji. But that will take a few years to build, by the time they go through the acquisitions – some of them are in the acquisition stage of land now – and do their construction, the planning, it will take about two to three years before they actually come on line.”
Ms Seeto said the “large number” of hotels in the pipeline included some well known brands that have not been to Fiji before and some boutique hotels.
“We’ve had some large groups that have come to Fiji as well that have not ever been to Fiji. So the executives have come to Fiji, they’ve seen how resilient we were following the epidemic and how quickly we got on our feet.
“And Fiji is considered a safe destination, if you look at what’s happening around the world, so there are a lot of opportunities in tourism and obviously for all the ancillary services around tourism as well.”
Ms Seeto said the loss of skilled labour in the construction sector would remain a challenged in getting the hotels up and running on time.
“But I’m sure we will overcome all those challenges and provide the inventory that the industry needs,” she said.
