Australia’s peak travel industry body has criticised the rollout of Fiji’s new five per cent tourism tax, warning its application to existing bookings could leave travellers facing unexpected additional costs.
The Australian Travel Industry Association (ATIA) says the tax, which takes effect from September 1, should not be retrospectively applied to holidays already booked and paid for.
“The design and rollout reflect a complete lack of understanding of how the travel booking ecosystem works, and it is travellers and travel businesses who will pay the price for that failure,” ATIA chief executive officer Dean Long said.
“Retrospective application is an absolute no-go. Once a customer has paid, that price is locked in.”
Mr Long said asking customers to pay additional charges after completing their bookings amounted to “a broken promise dressed up as policy”.
He said travellers were now being asked to find additional money for holidays they believed had been fully paid for months earlier.
“That is not how you treat people who chose Fiji in good faith,” he said.
ATIA has also criticised what it says was a lack of consultation with the Australian and New Zealand travel industries before the tax changes were announced.
“None of this needed to happen. The tax arrived with zero consultation with the travel industry in Australia or New Zealand despite the significant importance of these markets to Fiji,” Mr Long said.
He said Australia was Fiji’s largest tourism market and New Zealand its second-largest, yet the industry was given just over two weeks between the announcement and implementation of the tax.
Mr Long said this provided insufficient time for businesses to update contracts and pricing systems or properly advise travellers.
The Travel Agents’ Association of New Zealand has raised similar concerns and is calling for existing bookings to be exempt from the new tax.
“Grandfathering existing bookings is the fairest outcome,” TAANZ chief executive officer Julie White said.
“It protects travellers who purchased in good faith, gives the travel industry certainty and allows the new tax to be implemented cleanly for new bookings from 1 September.”
From September 1, the five per cent tax is set to apply to tourism operators, including hotel, tourism and cruise businesses, with annual turnover above $2 million.
The measure forms part of taxation changes announced under Fiji’s 2026-2027 National Budget.
