Outgoing Tourism Fiji CEO Josefa Tuamoto said he is confident Fiji is "well on the way" to surpassing its 660,000 visitor arrivals target set in January this year.
Tuamoto’s comments follow the release this week by the Fiji Bureau of Statistics that show the destination attracting 66,000 international visitors in August, setting a record for the month.
Speaking from the national tourist office’s headquarters in Nadi, Tuamoto said that based on the August result and indications of some "very healthy forward booking patterns" received from the local tourism industry, it was "highly likely" that the end of year visitor arrival tally would be closer to 680,000.
The 66,040 total visitor arrivals result for August represents an increase of 8.4 percent over the 61,850 figure achieved for the same month in 2010 and, in the process, takes 2011 eight month totals to 522, 132. This in itself represents a 7.2 percent increase over the 486,942 figure set for the same eight month period in 2010.
The destination’s key source markets—Australia, New Zealand and the US—all contributed increased visitation across the month.
The US figure of 4,843 recorded for the month represented a 3.7 percent increase over the 4,669 recorded in August 2010.
