Tourism Fiji, Fiji Airways and Trip.com Group signed a three-year strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) focusing on cooperating on the promotion of outbound tourism to Fiji and the development of its exposure in Greater China market and promote the ‘Where Happiness Comes Naturally’ Fiji travel.

The MOU was signed at Trip.com Group’s headquarter in Shanghai. The Ceremony was attended by Brent Hill, Chief Executive Officer of Tourism Fiji, Christina Templin, Head of Global Marketing of Fiji Airways and Edison Chen, VP, Destination Marketing & Strategy, International Public Relations of Trip.com Group.

The new agreement will see three parties work together on the promotion of Fiji as a destination, utilising Trip.com Group’s strength as a travel marketing leader and operator of leading global travel brands. Together, the three organisations will collaborate on knowledge sharing to inform how they can best contribute and drive the travel recovery.

This cooperation aims to support and stimulate tourism recovery of the destination and encourage Chinese travellers to visit Fiji as China announced the resumption of outbound tourism in January. Over the next three years, the parties will collaborate on travel marketing initiatives, product expansion and leverage data insights, to fully optimise the travel experience for tourists in Fiji.

Brent Hill, Tourism Fiji CEO said: “We are thrilled to announce the strengthening of our long-standing relationship with Trip.com Group, a leading travel service provider in China, through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in partnership with Fiji Airways. China was Fiji’s fourth largest market prior to the pandemic, our collaborative approach with Ctrip and Fiji Airways will undoubtedly contribute to driving more visitor arrivals from the Chinese market.”

“With the reopening of China’s border, we have seen a marked increase in outbound travel-related bookings and searches in the past three months. In line with our ‘local focus, global vision’ strategy, we have initiated a series of recovery sales activities and campaigns to stimulate overseas travel demands in the Chinese market. We look forward to collaborating with Tourism Fiji and Fiji Airways to leverage our resources and data insights to boost Fiji tourism development,” commented Edison Chen, VP, Destination Marketing & Strategy, International Public Relations of Trip.com Group.

As the global tourism industry is recovering, the three parties will work together to best capture pent-up demand by developing strategic campaigns aimed at promoting traffic and tourists to explore Fiji.

As China announced the resumption of outbound tourism and global tourism is recovering, the growth of multiple travel business lines of Trip.com Grhashave been showing strong momentum. Since the first quarter of 2023, despite transportation capacity constraints, outbound travel bookings on Ctrip, a sub-brand of Trip.com Group, have recovered to more than 40% of their pre-pandemic levels and increased by more than 300% compared with the same period last year.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, overall air ticket bookings on Trip.com, an international sub-brand of Trip.com Group, increased by more than 80% year on year, while air ticket bookings in the Asia-Pacific region increased by 300% year-on-year. With the recovery of the capacity of international flights, Chinese outbound travel will gradually pick up in the second quarter.

Starting from April 1, 2023, Fiji Airways will have two flights a week between Hong Kong and Nadi, and will increase to three flights a week by June, making it more convenient for Chinese tourists to visit Fiji. Coupled with the convenient transit service and full-equipped airport facilities at the Hong Kong airport, even a connecting flight can be a highlight of the journey.

Fiji, as one of the first pilot outbound group tour destinations, has welcomed the first Chinese group tourists to return to Fiji in April. International travellers to Fiji no longer need to provide COVID-19 vaccination certificates and take out travel insurance. Chinese passport holders (the passport valid for at least 6 months beyond the expected stay) can start visa-free and quarantine-free travel with a maximum stay of up to 4 months.

Tourism Fiji launched a new brand campaign to attract more foreign visitors earlier this year. The new brand campaign themed “Where Happiness Comes Naturally” is refreshed from the previous “Where Happiness Finds You.” Emphasize with a lot of happiness to offer, this new brand showcases the rich and diverse cultures and traditions in Fiji.