Tourism Fiji launches innovative new website

Fiji's efforts to attract more international visitors has been given a significant boost with the launch of a new Tourism Fiji website to showcase the country and its attractions.

With a search engine-friendly address, the state of the art, interactive site allows visitors and potential visitors to organise most aspects of their visit before they leave home, including obtaining quotes and making bookings.

The website's unique built-in Travel Planner can tailor individual preferences for the full range of Fiji's offerings - family holidays, romance, backpackers, diving and adventure. Prospective visitors can also share their holiday plans with friends and family via social media outlets such as Facebook.

Designed by a New Zealand-based specialist company, Sparks Interactive, the new website is part of the recently announced global rebranding of the country's tourism effort under the slogan 'Fiji Where Happiness Finds You'.

Launching the site in Nadi, the Attorney General and Minister for Tourism, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, said the initiative put Fiji on the cutting edge of website marketing and had important benefits for the Fijian tourism industry.

Sayed-Khaiyum explained "we expect that the ability of holidaymakers to get quotes and book their holidays direct will lead to an overall increase in the number of bookings. Those direct bookings mean more money in the pockets of local operators, rather than their overseas agents, and more of the returns from tourism being kept in Fiji. Local operators are also empowered by giving them easy access to the website to showcase their various attractions. It acts as a kind of living travel brochure about Fiji that can be altered and updated at any time.

"The international tourism market is highly competitive and there are many other destinations vying for the same trade. This website puts us in a great position because of its interactive capability and the imaginative way in which it showcases the unique Fijian travel experience."

Tourism Fiji acting Chair Elizabeth Powell, said prospective holidaymakers now had a much higher degree of control over what they wanted to see and do in Fiji, adding "visitors used to be dependent on travel agents for advice or the word-of-mouth of family and friends.

Now they can examine all of the available options on one interactive website from the comfort of their homes anywhere in the world. With all the information they need at their fingertips in a user-friendly online environment, they're in the best possible position to get the most out of their holidays and Fiji has more opportunity to get repeat business."

The new website is a vital component of the major overhaul and brand transformation announced by Tourism Fiji last year. This includes the appointment of a new global advertising agency, the selection of new public relations and media partners in Australia, New Zealand and the US, the appointment of a new social media partner and the appointment of a new Chief Executive, Rick Hamilton.

For more information go to www.fiji.travel

28th April 2012 - 73 MILLION REASONS TO CONSERVE FIJI’S SHARK TOURISM