Ritika Pratap 
[ CreditPhoto: islandsbusiness ]
There is no doubt Australia is Fiji’s largest tourism source market, representing over 45 percent of total arrivals.
Westpac in its quarterly update has stated that Fiji has long been heavily reliant on Australia providing tourists and over the years has continued to build on that relationship.
In 2024, close to 450,000 Australians visited Fiji, growing by five percent % from the prior year, and should the environment remain conducive and favourable, there should be no hindrance in attracting more visitors in 2025.
Westpac says that in 2023, for instance, over 10 million Australian residents departed for short-term travels for holiday visits and business reasons, of which around 4.2% or 434,000 came to Fiji.
At one point, just after Fiji borders reopened post-pandemic late in 2021 and early 2022, over 11% of Australian travellers decided to come to Fiji as other popular destinations remained closed.
Since then, Australian departures to Fiji have trended down to historical norms.
Westpac also surveyed international trade statistics from Australia.
It found that in terms of where Australians like to spend the most when travelling, Fiji is 11th on the list, spending $3.7 billion between July 2023 and June 2024.
Indonesia received the most in terms of Australian tourist expenditure which stood at $14.6 billion followed by New Zealand during the same time period.
