Fiji does not have an agritourism policy in place, however, a gastronomy tourism strategy being discussed at a three-day workshop could lay the groundwork for one, says Tourism and Civil Aviation permanent secretary Salaseini Daunabuna.
Ms Daunabuna was among the attendees at a three-day Regional Workshop on Sustainable Gastronomy Tourism in Nadi that began yesterday.
“We have run a nationwide workshop, which was in Sigatoka, Denarau, the North and also in Suva,” she said.
“What we found out was that while we have those in the agriculture sector and the fisheries sector, the connection is not there for them to know what is needed in the tourism sector, and for the tourism industry operators to know what is being produced and whether they would be able to meet the demand.”
Ms Daunabuna said a key challenge issue faced in Fiji was needed to work towards a unified agritourism policy or a gastronomy strategy.
“So that’s what we found out, and then we realised that we would need a strategy so that there’s a roadmap on how we would tackle these issues.
“Then we will set ourselves some milestones to say, within the first year, at least, bring everybody together, or do a stock take of what we have as a country and then maybe within the second year, then we would identify how we would make this connection.”
Ms Daunabuna said discussions also centred around the need for a digital platform that would provide progress reports on what each stakeholder was working towards and whether what is being done is needed by another counterpart.
“We have done a number of workshops, and it’s called the Farm to Fork initiative, and that is done together with the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Fisheries, and a few other key important sectors.”
