Tourism Fiji CEO Josefa Tuamoto has described the Reserve Bank of Fiji’s decision yesterday to devalue the Fiji dollar by 20 per cent as potentially, a timely windfall for the destination’s tourism industry.
Speaking from the national tourist office’s headquarters in Nadi, Mr Tuamoto said the devaluation represented a major boost for Fiji tourism.
“In a nutshell the devaluation means there has never been a better time to holiday in Fiji,” he said.
“Alike other destinations around the globe, Fiji too have felt the effects of the current economic turndown since the beginning of the year.
“Our situation was further compounded by the state of floods affecting the destination in mid-January which obviously had an impact on what traditionally is one of our strongest months of the year.
‘So the devaluation can be considered very timely in many respects.
Mr Tuamoto said he was confident the devaluation would have immediate and very positive ramifications for the local tourism industry and its overseas partners.
“Our dollar has appreciated quite significantly in the last two years,” he said.
“While Fiji has always represented fantastic value to our visitors, there were some pockets within the international travel industry that had implied the destination was becoming over priced.
“That’s is certainly not the case now as the devaluation will bring the Fiji dollar in line with the currencies in our major source markets - and especially Australia and New Zealand - where we will be driving the value for money message as part of our overall marketing of the destination.”
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