7 Sep 2007

Delegation to attend China mart to sell South Pacific as destination

12:55 pm on 7 September 2007

The chief executive of South Pacific Travel, Tony Everitt, says a delegation is to attend China mart in November as part of efforts to sell the region as a destination to tourist agents and wholesalers.

He says Fiji needs to carefully target the Chinese it wants to attract to the country.

The recent lifting by Fiji of visa requirements for Chinese to visit is expected to boost tourist numbers but there has been a call for funds to embark on a concerted, marketing effort.

However, Mr Everitt says an advertising campaign isn't necessary at present.

He says the strategy needs to target the high spending, high value tourists who are only a small proportion of China's 1.3 billion people.

"We've developed a Chinese language version of our portal, South Pacific. Travel, which is the official destination portal of the south Pacific. The internet, search engine marketing - very highly targetted marketing activities are the way to go in the Chinese market."

Tony Everitt.