16 Dec 2014

Fiji aims to break new visitor arrival record

9:33 am on 16 December 2014

Tourism Fiji says it's aiming to comfortably break the 700,000 annual arrival barrier in 2015.

This year the country welcomed 685,000 visitors which is a record.

The outgoing acting CEO, Ken Freer, says regional boosts such as Fiji Airways announcing new flights from Wellington to Nadi, have helped.

"We launched our brand just over a year ago, about 15 months ago and the work that's been done associated with that in all our key markets around the world, and we have offices in about six different countries, I think has been a very solid contributing factor also. Our target for 2015 is actually 714,000 visitors, so roughly a 4 to 5 per cent increase from 2014."

Ken Freer will be replaced as acting CEO by Wayne Deed from Tourism Fiji's New Zealand office.

The CEO Rick Hamilton resigned this year and the board says it is well on its way to appointing a permanent CEO.

A Fiji Airways plane

A Fiji Airways plane Photo: Supplied