VISITOR arrivals from New Zealand will be boosted when Air New Zealand introduces a daily Boeing 777 service from March to October this year.

A total of 123,968 people from the land of the long white cloud opted for Fiji as a holiday destination last year.

Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association president Dixon Seeto said this was reflective of the outstanding success of marketing strategies and promotions in the traditional source market. With more than 16,000 seats added to the route for the daily Boeing 777 service and introduction of evening flights during the July-August school holidays using Airbus A320 aircraft, Mr Seeto said New Zealand arrivals would be poised for another record this year.

“Any extra capacity from a major source market is a good thing. In the airline game frequency builds traffic and when you combine this with good airfares it builds healthy traffic flow and this translates to increased revenue for the airline and better arrivals numbers for Fiji.” Mr Seeto said Fiji would receive a major profile boost when Air New Zealand begins advertising the new service in the land down under.

Air New Zealand’s manager Fiji Brent Roxburgh said apart from the daily Boeing 777 and evening A320 service, the Kiwi carrier would also operate three weekly non-stop services between Christchurch and Wellington to Nadi.

“The additional capacity on our Fiji services reflects strong demand for Fiji as a winter holiday destination,” he said.