You’ll have seen the fresh analysis on the Pacific’s infrastructure deficit sent out by ANZ Pacific Insights in previous weeks.
It’s useful because it puts numbers to a reality many of us have been living with for years. I’ll tip my hat to the authors for naming two levers we’ve pushed for at FHTA for a long time: better-designed private participation and smarter, more accessible green finance. After that acknowledgement, let me bring this home to Fiji’s runways, wharves, roads and tourism-reliant communities, because that is where these ideas either make a difference to travellers or vanish into the filing cabinet.
Tourism isn’t just Fiji’s economic engine; it’s the heartbeat that keeps communities thriving. Government figures still peg its economy-wide contribution at over 40 per cent of GDP, but you don’t need a spreadsheet to see it. It’s in every pay packet from Nadi to Savusavu, every school fee paid, every small business that opens its doors with hope.
When visitors arrive smiling and leave with stories they’ll retell for years, the whole economy exhales. But when a road collapses after heavy rain, the power stutters, or a ferry runs late, you feel it instantly, in the cancelled bookings, the thinned-out shift rosters, the quiet buzz of missed opportunity.
That’s why infrastructure isn’t a line item; it’s a lifeline. It’s the difference between a five-star review and a cautionary tale. It’s about jobs, dignity, and the kind of service that turns guests into ambassadors. Every pothole, power cut, and port delay is a story waiting to be told. Let’s make sure it’s the right one.
Connectivity is our lifeblood, and it begins in the skies. Fiji Airways’ invitation to join Oneworld as a full member isn’t just a logo on the fuselage. It’s a game-changer. It deepens our code-share footprint, supercharges loyalty networks, and opens doors in every city we’re courting, from Tokyo to Toronto.
The alliance expects the transition to be completed by 2025, and the timing couldn’t be better. But with global visibility comes global expectations. We’ll need resilient runways, smart airport precincts, and seamless landside logistics to ensure the promise we sell in London or Los Angeles is delivered kerb-to-gate in Nadi and Nausori, without compromise.
Strong alliances bring the traffic. Strong infrastructure keeps it. This is where aspiration meets execution because every smooth arrival, every effortless transfer, every satisfied traveller is a vote of confidence, not just in our airline, but in our nation.
Out at sea, the cruise segment is quietly building a second engine. Through November 2024, Fiji welcomed 81,854 cruise passengers. That is a lot of spending ability ashore in a single tide, and it is why port readiness matters. You can feel the pace at Lautoka, where works are underway on a multi-purpose terminal designed to separate cruise guests from bulk cargo and fix the bottlenecks that made disembarkation a test of patience. The plan points to phased improvements through 2025 and into 2026. For hoteliers, tour operators and market stallholders, a better flow through that terminal is the difference between hurried browsing and real spending, because we must turn ship calls into small festivals that support wide networks of SMEs rather than just traffic jams.
Below the waterline, Fiji has quietly turned into a regional digital junction. The Southern Cross NEXT cable now lands on Viti Levu and in Savusavu, giving the North direct access to the global backbone for the first time. New trans-Pacific systems are on the drawing board, with Fiji flagged in several designs. That might sound like a tech curiosity, but it is operational insurance for tourism. Bookings, payments, security, entertainment and even modern dive briefings ride on bandwidth. Redundant fibre keeps front desks running smoothly when a storm knocks out a spur, and it supports work-from-home guests who want a beach by day and a clear video call at night.
We also have a real track record in innovative finance. Fiji was the first emerging market to issue a sovereign green bond back in 2017, raising funds for post-Winston reconstruction and climate-smart upgrades under a framework aligned with international principles. In 2023, we followed with a blue bond anchored in our Sustainable Bond Framework, prioritising coastal protection, aquaculture, integrated town planning and better waste systems on a small scale. These are not slogans. They lower the cost of capital for projects that matter to visitors and communities. A breakwater that protects a road to a jetty is as much tourism infrastructure, just as a boardwalk allowing locals and visitors to enjoy ocean views is, or a modern landfill cell that stops leachate from reaching a river protects a village, school and resort.
Now to that hard, but honest bit. Visitor capacity is outpacing parts of the backbone. Independent hotel consultants put 2024 arrivals just shy of a million. That is a positive problem until it spills over into service quality. We need to accelerate upgrades to water, power, solid-waste handling and last-mile roads in the belts around Nadi, the Coral Coast and the Mamanucas, while ensuring Vanua Levu and the Lau and Kadavu groups are not left to make do with the crumbs. Guests forgive a tropical downpour. They struggle to forgive a preventable outage, a blocked drain or a transfer that turns into a saga.
Reliability is now a competitive advantage. And tourism is not waiting. Many resorts already run rooftop solar and batteries, several have converted wastewater systems, and more are rolling out smart meters to spot leaks before they become bills and headlines, while transport systems are going with smarter, quieter technology. Each of these small moves reduces diesel dependence, quietens generators at night, adds resilience when a cyclone darkens the coast, and adds another brick in the wall for sustainability.
The blue economy is not a seminar theme for us. It is our front and back yard. Mangroves, reefs and beaches are infrastructure in every sense. They keep roads passable after a king tide and keep sand on the foreshore where we need it. We have learned the hard way that when we cut corners on environmental management, the bill arrives with interest. Communities in Nadi and Ba know what repeated flooding looks like when wetlands are stripped out. The good news is that modern blue financing ties capital to measurable outcomes. Healthy mangrove hectares and restored reef breaks are not just pretty pictures. They are natural sea walls that protect the Queen’s Road and the village footbridge, and they carry real savings when the next storm tests them.
Inter-island transport needs a modern refresh. Our guests love a seaplane photo as much as the next person, but most island-hopping happens on ferries and small craft. Safety, punctuality and environmental performance all improve when jetties, navigational aids and fuel standards are lifted. The plan to separate cruise and cargo at Lautoka is the right idea, scaled down: give people clean, shaded, well-signed spaces and move freight through dedicated areas. Add digital ticketing and updated manifests, and you speed up boarding, improve safety, and give operators and authorities clearer lines of sight when the weather turns.
The policy toolkit to pay for all this is not theoretical. Asset recycling, used carefully, allows Government to monetise a mature asset and fund the next wave of public goods. The caution is obvious. Do not transfer a monopoly without strong regulation, and do not recycle an asset simply to fill a budget hole. But you can see where it makes sense. If a port upgrade reaches steady revenue and strong performance, recycling a minority stake could help fund secondary town water schemes that struggle to attract capital. Balance that with tight oversight and transparent service standards, and you keep long-term users protected while the pipeline moves.
Private participation can be designed to fit our scale. A classic concession is not the only way forward. Joint ventures with minority government stakes can move complex projects faster, especially when they pair local operators with international expertise. Blended vehicles that combine concessional money from development partners with commercial capital can unlock power, water and waste projects that would otherwise sit in a drawer. Our own central bank joined regional colleagues last year in endorsing a roadmap for inclusive green finance. That is the right signal to investors who want climate outcomes and bankable structures, aligning with what our resorts and communities need on the ground.
So what do we, as an industry, want to see over the next eighteen months? Faster approvals where the environmental homework is tight and the design is climate-smart. A published schedule for priority road, water and energy works across the main tourism corridors, with quarterly progress reporting the public can track online. Airport and port authorities communicating early and often with operators so we can plan staffing and guest services around work. And a standing forum where utilities, regulators and operators sit together, solve problems in weeks rather than months or years and share the credit when a fix lands.
We will do our part. FHTA members are ready to bundle demand for rooftop solar, battery storage, high-efficiency chillers and wastewater upgrades so that suppliers can offer sharper prices and finance can be standardised. We are mapping training needs with our education partners because the best infrastructure in the world does not run itself. If we want shorter queues and faster response times, we will need more electricians, refrigeration techs, marine skippers and safety officers. Those are good jobs for Fijians, and they keep the money circulating locally rather than leaking out in emergency contractor bills.
I know some will say the machinery of approvals and procurement moves slowly for a reason. Checks and balances protect the public interest. I agree. I also think we can shorten cycles without cutting corners. Digital permitting, template contracts, pre-qualified contractor pools and performance-based payments already exist in other places. We should copy shamelessly. The opportunity cost of delay is not abstract. When a family in Sydney hesitates because their friends complained about brown water after heavy rain or a transfer that took three hours longer than planned, that hesitation shows up in our forward bookings and results in reduced tax receipts later in the year.
If the regional infrastructure gap is narrowing, as the analysts suggest, then now is the time to squeeze it further. The next two to three years look like a window when development partners, private capital and government priorities are unusually aligned. Fiji can use that window to finish the basics, extend opportunity to our northern and maritime regions and lock in climate-resilient growth that people can see and feel. The test will not be how many strategies we publish. It will be how many kilometres of road are rehabilitated, how many megawatts of clean power are added to the grid and how many ports and jetties move people and freight safely through bad weather as well as good.
Let me end with what I hear from guests and staff every week. Visitors come for the reefs and the smiles; they return because everything worked. Staff stay because the tools of their trade work too. If we keep our eyes on that, then the jargon of infrastructure finance boils down to something very Fijian. Do the practical things well so everyone can get on with their day. FHTA will keep pushing, partnering and, when needed, prodding. The goal is not to win the argument. Not to win the argument – but to make every journey smoother, every shift easier, and every story worth retelling