Fiji Tourism Swot Analysis

FIJI

Destination SWOT Analysis

Sally Kim

February 26, 2016

EVT 2010 – 001 Spring 2016

Destination SWOT Analysis

Grading Criteria Cover Sheet

Student’s Name:        Sally Kim              Class/Section: EVT 2010-001        Date: February 26, 2016

SWOT ANALYSIS

The Republic of Fiji is a set of inhabitable 300 islands about 1,300 miles from the northeast coast of New Zealand. Collectively, the islands are about the size of New Jersey. It ranks in the lowest 20% of the world in population with around 893,000 people and slowly counting; it doesn’t appear that it will gain its millionth citizen until well after the year 2020. 1

Fiji hit a record high of 792,320 visitors in 2016, an increase of 5% over the previous year. The countries that contributed to this increase and the numbers from 2015 to 2016 are as follows:  New Zealand (25,299 to 163,836), China (8,909 to 49,083), Rest of Asia (6,177 to 20,558), USA (1,797 to 69,628), South Korea (1,371 to 8,071), Pacific Islands (1,171 to 49,741), Continental Europe (721 to 31,916), Japan (182 to 6,274) and Canada (71 to 11,780).2   The tourism industry has taken over as a significant means of creating economic activity, at a rate of growth to account from approximately 36% of the GDP in 2015 to 44% of the GDP by the year 2025.

Strengths

        The citizens of Fiji are very proud of sharing their culture with the many world visitors, notably of Asian, Australian and European descent. They rely heavily on tourism to provide, and the combination of both having citizens and visitors of varied descent have made it one of its’ greatest strengths. Of these cultures, the English language is also of dominance, along with Fijian and Hindi, making communication simple and appealing for many of its visitors. There are plenty of adventures related to the varied terrain available in exploring coral reefs, home to over 1500 species of fish and sea creatures, lush beaches, canyons, waterfalls, sailing, sand dunes, mountains, cruises, diving, hiking, surfing and even golf. The movies Castaway and The Blue Lagoon were filmed there, and it is no wonder that Jacques Cousteau’s son, Jean-Michele has a world-class resort on the island. He is a strong advocate of the island’s ecotourism building a resort that is mindful of its’ original home and inhabitants. He understands that a culture was able to survive and provide themselves for 30 centuries and wants to preserve the natural splendor6.  This is just one of many attempts of the people and government of Fiji set to preserve the island’s natural habitat.

Threats

        Being geographically set as an archipelago comes with a set of its own built-in issues. One huge problem that is the common factor in so many issues is the infrastructure, or lack thereof. Combine this with political instability, and the problem grows. Close to a third of the country’s population is underserved in so many basic necessities of civilized life: clean water, plumbing/sanitary facilities and sewers, food, electricity, educational facilities, healthcare and other social services. It is the opposite of what tourists see when they arrive at their plush resorts- the people of Fiji are doing what they can to uphold the sense of community and belonging that their culture is known for. There are over 200 squatter/shantytowns that approximately 200,000 people inhabit. Employment is in short supply. With the sugarcane industry declining and the number of exports (Raw Sugar, Refined Petroleum, Frozen Fish, Water and Wood Fuel) being overshadowed by imports, the result is a negative trade balance.4  Once a British Colony, there were a series of coups and turmoil. Many government officials still deny any issues with poverty.