Fiji tourist arrivals on the rise

Fiji has become an increasingly popular destination for tourists from emerging market like China with tourist arrivals on the rise.

The Bureau of Statistics revealed Thursday that they recorded better results in tourist arrivals of 61,919 for June this year with an increase of 6.6 percent over the same month last year.

Government statistician Timoci Bainimarama says Fiji continued to be the best destination for Australians with 31,073 visitors arriving on our shores, an increase of 5.6 percent compared with 29, 974 in the same month last year.

Visitors from New Zealand increased to 11,545, up 9.4 percent from 10,557 recorded in June last year.

The Kiwis are followed by the United States with 6,111, an 8 percent increase and Europe with 2,247, a two percent increase.

Meanwhile, increases for June 2011 from a year earlier were recorded for visitors from China which stands at 44.9 percent, Canada 9.6 percent and United Kingdom 1.4 percent while decreases were noted for Japan of up to 30.1 percent and South Korea of 0.4 percent.

Tourism Fiji believes China is one of the emerging tourism markets they will continue to target. Its chief executive officer Josefa Tuamoto said earlier they would tap into China as it was one of the emerging markets in the world.

Tuamoto said visitor numbers from China were promising with 18, 000 travelling to Fiji in 2010, an increase of more than 32 percent over the previous year.

The Bureau also recorded an increase in visitor arrivals for the first six months this year, which showed an increase of 9 percent over the same period in 2010.

Statistics have revealed that 75 percent of the total visitor numbers were arriving for holiday purposes.