LONG flights are a challenge faced by Tourism Fiji in its attempts to lure Indian travellers here.
Tourism Fiji acting chief executive officer Michael Meade said this, however, would not deter the organisation.
“Access by air is of course one of the challenges,” he said.
“If we can get some direct flights from India or good connection flights direct to Fiji, that will make a lot of difference in terms of visitor arrivals.
“A lot of Indian tourists are coming here as add on when they visit Australia and New Zealand.
“Obviously, Australia and New Zealand are the big markets for us. We are getting 67 per cent arrivals because of the locations and a lot of flights.”
Mr Meade said the India Fiji Tourism Trade Show would have a positive impact on the number of travellers visiting Fiji in the near future.
“This event provides these Indian travel agents eyes as to what Fiji has to offer.
“At the moment Fiji is really popular with honeymooners and not so big for meetings because of the distance and flight connections.
“Most of them like to go to Tahiti, Bora Bora because it is well-known to honeymooners and we want to position Fiji in that space. This show will no doubt promote Fiji to India. In the past two years we have taken some major operators from here and we have done four city roadshows in India as part of our promotion.
“No doubt this show is an opportunity for the agents to visit and explore Fiji.
“Though numbers are quite low, under 3000 arrival, the growth is there. India could be one of the major markets in Fiji with better air access.”