A $10 MILLION allocation to the Yasawa Tourism Marketing Cooperative in the 2025–2026 National Budget has drawn scrutiny from Opposition Members of Parliament.
Opposition MP Faiyaz Koya said the grant may be the first time such a large amount had been allocated to a single cooperative.
The Yasawa Tourism Marketing Cooperative comprises 12 hotel and backpacker operators in the Yasawa Islands.
“This is a marketing cooperative, and I ask this because I don’t think there’s ever been a case where such a large amount has actually been given to one single cooperative,” Mr Koya said.
“I understand the tourism issue, I understand the backpacker issue, but why, as part of a cooperative, is it being given?”
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Cooperatives Manoa Kamikamica responded that the focus was not the cooperative itself, but the 12 tourism businesses that made up the group.
“Ultimately, we could have called this just as our restructure package.
“It’s really not so much about the cooperative but about funding the 12 entities that need to be assisted, in our view.
“They have formed a collective as a cooperative, just to keep them in a group together so that they can work together.”
Mr Kamikamica said the group received no government assistance during or after the COVID-19 pandemic and the allocation was part of efforts to “reinvigorate” the industry.
“They basically had a very hard time with the cyclones and they did not receive much in terms of assistance from government at the time.
“This is an attempt to reinvigorate the Yasawa backpacker market, particularly the indigenous operators, because basically, as I’ve said, there used to be 32 there and that decimated down to about 12 at the moment.”
He said the ministry believed the allocation would help rebuild the businesses.
