UP TO 90 per cent of hotel bookings done in Fiji are carried out online, whether local or overseas, says South Pacific Tourism Organisation CEO Ilisoni Vuidreketi.
Mr Vuidreketi said it indicated how important it was for small medium enterprises (SME) tourism operators to have an online presence.
He said Tourism Fiji was doing well in its bid to market the country as a tourism destination.
“Tourism Fiji is doing well in advertising the country as a tourism destination,” Mr Vuidreketi said at E-Marketing Support for Tourism Small and Medium Sized Enterprises workshop in Savusavu last week.
“However, one has to understand there is a vast difference between marketing the country as a destination online and marketing individual tourism SME operators. Marketing individual operators involves putting them and their products out there in the web as they can benefit more by piggybacking on destination marketing,” he said.
He said operators could market themselves individually but they would be lost in the big market unless it was done collectively by operators within a country.
“Eighty five to 90 per cent of hotel bookings, either local or overseas, are done online showing a vast increase in people’s dependence on the World Wide Web to carry out transactions such as travel and hotel bookings.
“These also warrant a need on the part of SME operators’ presence on the web to market their products and what they have to offer.”
The workshop aimed to educate operators on how they could use the internet as a tool of marketing.
