Fiji’s tourism has grown over the last decade to become a major source of income, exceeding agriculture as a source of foreign exchange earnings. Estimated tourist spending of F$479.1 million in 1997 would make tourism the largest industry. However, since a large portion of tourist spending leaks out of the economy as payments for imports, the net economic impact of tourism is smaller than that implied by tourist spending numbers. Still, tourism is a critical source of jobs and foreign exchange and is a means of access to the rest of the world.

In 1991-97, total annual tourist count increased 38.6 percent from 259,350 to 359,441, with an average annual gain of 5.6 percent. During that time, total arrivals to Fiji dropped only once in 1995 by 0.1 percent, following the decade’s largest gain of 10.9 percent the year before. In 1997, tourist arrivals to Fiji totaled 359,441, up 5.7 percent from 1996’s total of 339,560. Total tourist spending of F$479.1 million was up a healthy 11.4 percent from 1996. In the first half of 1998, total arrivals were up 2.4 percent from the same period in 1997, but notable changes occurred in the relative shares of tourists from the various markets. Most of these shifts resulted from the devaluation of the Fiji dollar and the Asian financial crisis.

Between January and June, tourists from Australia increased the most, by 29.2 percent, and their share of the total rose from 22.4 percent for all of 1997 to 28.1 percent in the first six months of 1998. Devaluation of the Fiji dollar, along with concerns about other destinations where domestic unrest prevails (such as Indonesia), caused the increase in tourists from Australia. Declining the most in the first half of 1998 were tourists from Japan, down 23.2 percent from the same time in 1997. This plunged the Japanese tourists’ market share to a single digit (9.2 percent) for the first time in the 1990s. The main cause of the traffic drop from Japan is the deteriorating Japanese economy.

Rising in numbers but not in relative share of the total in the first half of 1998 were tourists from the United States. The number of American tourists was up 8.5 percent in the first half of 1998, but remained unchanged as a share of the total at 12.6 percent. Amore positive trend for tourists from the United States can be seen in their numbers for the entire 1991-97 period when they increased 39.4 percent from 31,631 to 44,376. Again, the relative share of American tourists did not change during the period, averaging 12.9 percent. The closest in market share to American tourists in 1991-97 were tourists from Japan who averaged 12.7 percent of the total.