Bula: Fiji will break its tourism hiatus after 20-months of closed borders. Photo / Supplied, Tourism Fiji
Bula: Fiji will break its tourism hiatus after 20-months of closed borders. Photo / Supplied, Tourism Fiji
After 19 months without visitors, Fiji has drawn a line in the sand under the Covid pandemic, announcing its borders will be open by the end of the year.
Fiji will welcome fully vaccinated tourists from 1 December.
New Zealand is one of 15 "travel partner" countries on Fiji's greenlist, meaning fully vaccinated travellers can visit without quarantining.
"It's been almost two years since we welcomed international visitors," said Faiyaz Koya, Minister for Tourism. "And in these two years, we've struggled, we've adapted, and we've prepared."
Linked to this announcement was the restart of Fiji Airways flights to New Zealand.
From December there will be daily return flights scheduled from Auckland, as well as three flights a week from Christchurch, and two from Wellington.
The routes will be served by Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and Airbus A330s.
Fiji Airways' 737 MAX aircraft will be returning to air New Zealand with 12 weekly flights. Photo / Supplied
CEO Andre Viljoen said the airline was "more than ready to safely welcome back international travellers from 1st December and greet them with our famous Fijian hospitality".
"Fiji's entire tourism industry has been waiting for this," Viljoen said.
Tourism Fiji welcomed the announcement as one very long in the making.
"This is the moment we have been planning for nearly two years now and I can assure the world that Fiji is safe and ready to welcome you back," said the tourism body CEO Brent Hill.
"We are ecstatic that Fiji will open its borders to international visitors before the end of the year."
Part of this has involved creating a directory of Fiji-based tourism businesses and travel operators through the Fiji Care Commitment programme.
There are 206 businesses whose staff have been fully vaccinated and have followed Covid-19 best practice to gain CFC approval.
Tourism minister Koya said that the islands have been looking forward to the moment when this announcement can be made:
"Today, our national airline is ready, our hotels and tour providers are ready, and Fijians are ready to safely welcome the world back," he said.
The 333 islands were one of the most popular and well-connected destinations in the South Pacific.
Served by direct flights from Japan, Australia, the US, Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand - Nadi was a travel hub for much of the South Pacific.
However since March 2020 the country shut its borders to all non-essential travel. Recording over 51,000 cases of Covid-19 since June with recent local outbreaks in the islands, Fiji was not spared the virus.
The county's vaccination rate has given them the confidence to reopen to tourists even though cases may never return to zero.
On Saturday Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said that it was time to reopen Fiji to the World.
80% of adults in Fiji are fully-vaccinated a full three weeks ahead of schedule! I'm grateful to everyone who's rolled up their sleeves to help make Fiji safe.
At 4pm on #FijiDay, I'll announce the easing of COVID restrictions at home and our plan to re-open Fiji to the world.
Under a framework that involved welcoming only fully vaccinated, with a negative RT-PCR test 72-hours prior to boarding, and again after arriving visitors could enjoy their holiday quarantine free.
