Fiji’s tourism thrust

Tourism is to be one of the main thrusts of the Fiji pavilion at the Taejon Expo.

The exposition organisers pay all ex penses for one person from each country during the three months of the expo. A representative of the Fiji Visitors Bureau has been sent to man the pavilion reflecting the importance of tourism to Fiji.

The Fiji Trade and Investment Board, who were instrumental in setting up the Fiji display at Taejon, say they want to expose Fiji’s tourism potential to Asia.

This will be done by showing visitors to the pavilion Fiji as a potential desti nation so they consider it an option when they are planning a holiday. Asia is a very lucrative tourism market for the South Pacific with the number of Asians visiting the region increasing annually.

The potential for investment in the tourism sector is also being promoted.

What the Fiji pavilion will show visitors among other things is the infrastructure of the country and invest ment potential in many sectors. This will include details of the skilled labour force available, the tax free opportunities and the professional services such as banking and accounting that are available. There will also be cultural exhibits displayed. This will allow visi tors to walk through the display and see Fiji’s unique culture, natural attractions, natural resources and development. One of the themes of the Taejon Expo is development in harmony with nature and Fiji will show how they have tried to accomplish this. Some Fiji manufacturers

were given a chance by the Fiji Trade and Investment Board to display prod ucts at the Korean exposition. These include bottled water, tuna and soap. Fiji stamps and books will be sold at the Fiji pavilion but as the FTIB explained the purpose of the exposition is not to sell Fiji products at the stall but to show people what is available in Fiji from beautiful sandy beaches to an excellent investment environment.

All the South Pacific countries have been given a section of the expo site and

the organisers have developed the Pacific site to reflect the Pacific islands with a lot of greenery and water. All the Pacific pavilions were set-up and given to the countries free of charge. Representa tives from the Taejon organising commit tee visited the Pacific to get a feel of Pacific construction before they built the pavilions. August 17 was South Pacific day at Taejon this included a giant video screen showing tapes of the partici pating South Pacific countries. □

Japanese tourist in FIJI: Fiji is out to attract more Asian visitors