A GROUP of Fiji’s leading hotels joined the One Beach Fiji campaign in a bid to keep some of the country’s most popular tourist spots clean and visitor friendly.
The campaign, started by The Distillery Co of Fiji’s founder Paul Clark, kicked off at the InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort and Spa on July 11.
IHG Hotels and Resorts Fiji and Pacific regional general manager Lachlan Walker said the campaign marked the group’s commitment to raising awareness to environmental stewardship and sustainable tourism.
“We thought what better way to start the clean-up than to start in one of Fiji’s popular beaches which is Natadola,” said Mr Walker.
“This is two kilometres of white sandy beach and a lot of people can see there’s quite a lot of rubbish here.
“So we wanted to bring our people, our partners and our nearby communities together to help clean up Natadola and start something that could be taken to other parts of the country.”
Mr Clark said the campaign was designed to encourage communities to commit to cleaning up beachfronts and popular picnic spots.
“This is about taking pride of our beautiful beaches and ocean and encouraging people to do the right thing and store their rubbish in the right places.
“We have these beautiful beaches and environment that we need to protect and keep them clean.
“So I’m hoping that our stakeholders, partners in the tourism industry take this on as well and not only join the campaign but continue to raise awareness in and around their communities to keep our beautiful pristine beaches clean.”
Malomalo district spokesperson Emoni Rokomoce said the landowners and nearby villages had partnered with nearby hotels within the district to start a monthly clean up campaign of Natadola Beach.
“This is an area that is world-renowned and we, as the traditional custodians, want to ensure that our future generations can also enjoy it because it has brought us so many opportunities and we want to sustain that,” said Mr Rokomoce.
