Although Airbnbs have eased accommodation and room shortage for visitors to Fiji, there is a need for an enforcement agency to make sure they strictly adhere to health and safety regulations.
This was highlighted by Fiji Hotel & Tourism Association CEO Fantasha Lockington while speaking on the The Fiji Times online news portal The Lens@177.
She said while Fiji Airways had expended its fleet over the past 10 years, development in terms of accommodation in the tourism sector was slow.
“We need to also consider that we have not got the room inventory that the airline needs to make sure that the number of people it can bring in, have somewhere to stay,” Ms Lockington said.
“So there’s a lot of work going on in the background going on in the last year or so to have a look at where the investment opportunities are and how we can make that all happen in reality.”
Ms Lockington said although Airbnb provided an excess of about 1000 rooms to fill in the gaps, there were little to no regulations and accountability when a visitor was involved in an accident or got sick.
“On top of that, our real concern, apart from it being not as regulated as the accommodation providers are, is the fact that there’s no accountability in terms of what happens if a visitor takes ill, falls down or there’s an accident.
“And usually they come to me or Consumer Council or FCCC and the three of us go well, we’re not sure, what do we do?”
