Tourism grows

TOURIST numbers to Fiji have grown from last year, said Asia-Pacific STA Travels marketing director Michelle Cox. Ms Cox, who was out on South Seas Island with 85 STA Travel staff from New Zealand and Australia on Saturday, said Fiji had become one of their prime products.

The STA Travel staff spent their last night in Fiji in a special way. They had a beach barbecue and warrior dancers awaited them on the shores of South Seas Islands."After three days of conferencing, this is a great break for us. This is also a great opportunity for most of us because we are selling Fiji and from last year many tourists have shown an interest in coming to Fiji," said Mrs Cox.

She said they had a brochure dedicated especially for Fiji."Many of the staff here only know about Fiji through the experiences of those who came to Fiji. This year we decided to bring them down and have the conference here.

"The main question many of the staff ask, because this is their first time, is if the Fijian exuberance and friendliness is real. I have been to Fiji many times and I have experienced this friendliness the many times I have come and I told them that, yes, it is real. Fijians are a wonderful people."

She said they were expecting sales to increase this year."We have been working with South Seas Cruises and Awesome Adventures for some time now and we are very confident in our partnership," she said.

STA Travels will also be setting up a trust fund for islanders in the Yasawa Group to help them with their daily needs and educational requirements. "We saw that we could help out and this is the way we are proposing to do it. The trust fund will surely help the villagers," she said.

Source = fijitimes