PROVISIONAL visitor arrivals for February this year totalled 54,219 – a slight increase of 9.6 per cent compared to a year earlier.
The Fiji Bureau of Statistics revealed this in its visitor arrivals statistics released last week, noting, however, a decrease of 23.6 per cent when compared to January this year with a record of 70,993 arrivals.
Of the 54,219 visitor arrivals last month, a total of 53,192 came by air while 1027 came by sea.
The FBoS stated that the sea arrivals were mostly seamen on fishing vessels (1025) and two arrivals by yacht.
“For February 2026, visitors arriving for holiday purposes accounted for 72.0 per cent of total arrivals, 8.7 per cent came to visit their friends or relatives, 3.5 per cent came fort business purposes while 15.8 per cent visited Fiji for other reasons,” the FBoS stated.
The major source markets for visitor arrivals in Fiji – Australia, New Zealand, USA, China, Continental Europe, Canada and United Kingdom — accounted for 82.1 per cent and remained the major source markets in February.
A total of 19,094 visitors came from Australia (35.2 per cent), 8511 from New Zealand (15.7 per cent), 7757 came from USA (14.3 per cent), 3679 from China (6.8 per cent), 2383 from Continental
Europe (4.4 per cent), 1937 came from Canada (3.6 per cent), and 1152 from the UK (2.1 per cent).
The FBoS also stated that majority of visitors were in the age range of 25-64 years (65.2 per cent), which accounted for the vast majority of the working age population.
It stated that the predominantly retirement age group of 65 and over accounted for 14.0 per cent of the February visitor arrivals; 11.9 per cent were youths aged 15-24, and the remaining of 8.9 per cent were children aged 14 and below.
The FBoS stated that in 2025 and 2024, visitor arrivals for February stood at 49,483 and 54,732, respectively.
Meanwhile, a total of 14,264 Fiji residents also departed the country during February.
Of that, a total of 12,332 (86.5 per cent) were for short-term absence of under three months and 875 (6.1 per cent) were for over three months and within 12 months period.
According to the FBoS, a total of 1057 (7.4 per cent) of resident departures were for a longer term absence of 1 year or more.
It stated that the reasons for departure as reported by residents leaving for a short-term absence were for holiday (48.9 per cent), visiting friends or relatives (36.0 per cent), business – (8.5 per cent), others (2.3 per cent), employment (2.1 per cent), and education or training (2.1 per cent).
