A number of major investments are expected to roll out soon in the tourism industry and some projects are quite close to kicking off, says Tourism Fiji chief executive Brent Hill.
He mentioned this at a press update after the two-day inaugural Fiji Tourism Investment Summit 2023 at Denarau on Friday.
This exciting development was also shared by Trade Minister Manoa Kamikamica during the opening of the inaugural summit in which he indicated that the Government was keen to explore every single opportunity that exists to grow the country.
“There are some serious things that are about to happen in our country,” Mr Kamikamica said.
Mr Hill said executives of big brands from the Marriott Group, the IHG, Hilton and a number of private equity players had expressed interests in growing the industry.
“There are some really good projects that they want to attach their brands to which is really, really exciting,” Mr Hill said.
“So we’ve actually got a couple of projects that are in that luxury high end space that they’re looking for.
“There’s a couple of projects in that sort of 250 room, four-and-a-half star type products, like similar to what we have here and then there’s that sort of three-and-a-half to four star, transit style and business style.”
Mr Hill said there had been really genuine interest and the inaugural summit allowed the fast track of these projects as relevant stakeholders were present to give their input on these proposals. He said this could be the beginning of the next phase of investment for Fiji.
Investment Fiji CEO Kamal Chetty said a lot was achieved through this summit and getting all major players together to exchange ideas about moving investments forward was icing on the cake.
He said the aim as well was to involve landowners, property owners and investors that have potentially good projects in Fiji.
He said a lot of discussions have happened around this investment area and was glad the summit allowed them to connect players and fast-track projects, particularly in the tourism sector.