Felix Chaudhary
SUVA (The Fiji Times/Pacific Media Watch): Media personnel from some of China's premier news outlets are in Fiji to experience first-hand what the country has to offer for tourists from the Asian source market.
With print circulation ranging from 350,000 to 700,000, it is hoped that the experiences shared by the six journalists from Travel & Leisure China, Voyage, ELLE, The Bund, Travelling Scope and National Geographic Traveler will bring a huge boost to arrivals from the Chinese travel market.
Tourism Fiji said the familiarity exercise would allow the Chinese media personnel an intimate opportunity to get to know the diverse destination types, products and services that Fiji had to offer.
Publications from the six media organisations are scheduled for two months after their visit to Fiji and expected to hit newsstands in China in June and July.
During this time, Tourism Fiji has strategically planned on increasing branding activity Tourism Fiji in the China market in the lead up to Golden Week in China — which is a seven-day national holiday in the People's Republic.
China - one of the most sought after tourism markets in the world - has significantly increased its holidaymakers to Fiji over the past few years.
From 18,147 in 2010, Chinese visitor arrivals increased to 28,333 last year.
With a 43.9 percent increase for January and February this year compared with the same period in 2014, Tourism Fiji's global public relations manager Patricia Mallam said Chinese arrivals this year were expected to push past the 30,000 mark.
She said Chinese tourists spent an average of 9.2 days in the country and one of the reasons the market was being pursued was because Chinese visitors loved to shop.
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Pacific Media Watch
