A TOTAL of 67,290 people visited Fiji in May, which is an increase of 4.5 per cent compared with the same month last year.
The country’s visitor arrivals also increased when compared with a month earlier – April 2018 – which recorded a total of 63,535.
This was noted in the Fiji Bureau of Statistics (FBoS) latest provisional data on the visitor arrivals.
The data highlighted increases in the number of visitors from Australia [1,691 or 6.0 per cent to 29,730]; the United States of America [1,057 or 17.6 per cent to 7,059]; Continental Europe [391 or 14.9 per cent to 3,013]; Rest of Asia [333 or 15.7% to 2,460] and the United Kingdom [50 or 4.2 per cent to 1,239].
It however noted decreases in the number of visitors from the following countries; Pacific Islands [down 254 or 6.4 per cent to 3,725]; Canada [down 220 or 20.9 per cent to 834]; New Zealand [down 82 or 0.6 per cent to 14,383]; China [down 52 or 1.5 per cent to 3,447]; Japan [down 50 or 11.3 per cent to 391] and South Korea [down 42 or 6.6 per cent to 598].
Visitors arriving for holiday purposes dominated the numbers accounting for 76.3 per cent of total arrivals.
A 8.4 per cent of the total arrivals came to visit their friends or relatives, 3.6 per cent came for business purposes, while 11.7 per cent visited Fiji for other reasons.
*Table 1 below presents actual numbers and the 2018 and 2017 comparisons of visitor arrivals for the month of May, January to May and twelve months to May 2018 (Source: FBoS)
*Figure 1 below is a graphical comparison of Visitor Arrivals by Country for May 2018 and 2017.
The total number of visitors to Fiji also increased by 4.6 per cent compared with the same period in 2017 in the moving twelve monthly numbers ending May 2018.
Visitors from Rest of Asia increased by [16.2 per cent]; Other Countries [15.7 per cent]; the United States of America [13.1 per cent]; New Zealand [9.8 per cent]; South Korea [7.2 per cent]; Continental Europe [4.9 per cent]; Pacific Islands [4.7 per cent]; Australia [0.8 per cent] and the United Kingdom [0.4 per cent].
Decreases was recorded for visitors from Japan [8.1 per cent]; Canada [1.4 per cent] and China [0.6 per cent].
January to May 2018, showed that visitor arrivals increased by 2.1 per cent over the corresponding period in 2017, up from 296,088 to 302,329.
*Figure 2 below shows a graphical comparison of visitor arrivals by country during the period January to May 2018.
The majority of visitors to Fiji in May 2018 were in the age range 25-64 (67.7 per cent), which accounts for the vast majority of the working age population.
Children aged 14 and below accounted for 14.2 per cent of the May visitor arrivals; 10.1 per cent comprising those in the predominantly retirement age group of 65 and over with the remaining and 8.0 per cent comprising were youths aged 15-24
Visitors by occupation
The top 5 Occupational Groups for visitors engaged in gainful employment in their home countries are as follows;
1) Professional Workers – 13,095
2) Legislators – 9,999
3) Technician and Related Workers – 8,122
4) Service Workers – 4,507
5) Craft Workers – 3,541
Visitors who are not in the labour force were categorised into two major groups. The categories and numbers are as follows;
1) Retirees, Housewives, Children & Others – 13,705
2) Students – 9,224
