TS107: TOURISM IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC

ESSAY
'Critically discuss the challenges of marketing your home country to the

Asian and American markets. In your essay, identify the key issues and

make appropriate recommendations on the way forward for your country.'

Semester 1, 2024

Name: Emi T Vulaono Dilelekula

Id: s11208933

Campus: Labasa Campus

Course coordinator: Marika Kuilamu

“Fiji is a tropical paradise located in the heart of the South Pacific (Fien John, 2003). There are
many interests and problems when marketing Fiji to the Asian and American markets”. Fiji has a
lot of guarantees as a place to visit because of its beautiful scenery, lively culture, and kind
people. But different cultures, competitive environments, accessibility problems, and the
preservation of the environment must all be carefully taken into account in order to effectively
promote Fiji to these varied markets. This essay will critically examine the main difficulties
encountered while promoting Fiji to Asian and American consumers and offer ways for getting
over them.

To begin with, overcoming cultural and language barriers is one of the main difficulties in selling
Fiji to Asian and American customers . The common challenge that emerges in this stage is
overcoming cultural and language barriers that stand in the way of selling Fiji (Reisinger, 2008)
to customers in Asia and America. The selling process to Asian countries is adjustments-based
because social norms and communication styles are different from the Fijians. The language
difference often stands in the way for effective sales when a seller and a potential buyer cannot
understand each other fully. The same challenge occurs with American clients who have
different cultural communication styles (Todorovic, 2020)and often stand out of Fijians in terms
of social partnerships. Sellers to buyers in Asia and America need to develop language skills,
culturally sensitive marketing materials, and use the services of language assistance when
making a deal in order to reach mutual understanding.

To move on, there are certain differences, but overall, there are similar difficulties when
promoting Fiji to Americans. A big difficulty is that there aren't any direct flights connecting Fiji
to major American cities, which means tourists interested in visiting will have to pay more and
have to go distance. Since Americans may choose nearby or easier-to-reach options, it is difficult
to market Fiji as a tourist destination to them due to this distance barrier. For example, in an
effort to overcome this obstacle, Fiji Airways has partnered up with American airlines in order to
provide code-share arrangements and easy flights between Fiji (Everett, 2018) and important US
hubs like Los Angeles and San Francisco. Fiji Airways hopes to increase accessibility and draw
in more American visitors by utilizing these relationships.

Furthermore, there is a great deal of competition for Fiji from well-known travel destinations in
America and Asia, for example in America, Fiji competes with resorts in Hawaii, the Caribbean,
and various cities located by the coast. These resorts and attractions are well-known for their
ability to provide clients with a wide range of experiences, including relaxing on sandy clean
beaches and enjoying a wide range of entertainment options. American resorts are popular due to
convenient location and a well-developed system that provides this kind of vacation to millions
of Americans. In Asia, Fiji has to win the attention of tourists from Bali, Japan, and Thailand.
Those countries are popular among international tourists due to a mix of unique culture, beautiful
nature, and affordable prices. To prevail over other towns and countries, Fiji should focus on
making its participation in the field more attractive to clients due to own beauties and
innovations that could be experienced by tourists and also Fiji can work with airlines, tour
operators, and travel agents to produce popular packages and promotional materials.

Moreover, Promoting Fiji to Asian and American markets is extremely difficult due to the
country's poor connection and accessibility. Travelers who are looking for quick and simple
travel may be discouraged by long travel distances, few direct flights, and transportation, there
are significant challenges to promoting Fiji to their markets (Prasad, 2013); is that the country is
not well-connected and accessible such as Geographic distance, lack of direct flights, and long
hours from the major cities in either Asia or America make Fiji less than accessible, opening
whole new markets to other, closer destinations. Within transportation lack of domestic flights,
lack of reliable inter-island ferries, and other forms of connectivity limiting accessibility to the
country sides further damage the Fijian destination. Collaboration of the Government and
airlines or Tourism development stakeholders may continue to curtains these linkages to tourists.
These may not be ideal for Asians or Americans who consider accessibility the best experience
for a vacation. and also, in order to solve these problems, money must be allocated to the
construction of new infrastructure, enhanced air connectivity, and collaborative efforts with
airlines to provide greater accessibility and reasonably priced options for traveling.

Additionally, Travel decisions and visitor views are significantly impacted by conservation of
the environment issues. Sustainable tourism practices have to be implemented to maintain the
natural beauty and biological beauty of Fiji's vulnerable ecosystems, which include its coral reefs
and marine biodiversity. Minimizing the environmental effect of the tourism industry (Davies,
2000) and preserving Fiji's beauty for future generations need the implementation of eco-friendly
measures including waste management programs, renewable energy projects, and marine
conservation efforts.

To add on, another challenger faced is that when picking a place (Jenkins, 2010), travelers are
heavily influenced by their feelings of safety and political stability. Political instability has
occurred in Fiji before, which might worry interested tourists especially those from Western
countries like the US. Fiji has to emphasize safety and security measures, encourage fair
government, and use destination advertising and promotional techniques to highlight its image as
a friendly and peaceful place to travel in order to relieve these concerns.

In conclusion, there are many of chances for development and success even if selling Fiji to
Asian and American markets presents significant challenges. Fiji can establish itself as a top
tourism destination that provides visitors from all over the world with life-changing experiences
by removing discrimination based on culture, improving accessibility, encouraging
environmental sustainability, and placing a high priority on safety (Wilson, 2001). The
opportunity for mutually beneficial arrangements to contribute to tourism growth can be seen by
Fiji's effective relationships with major airlines such as Fiji Airways and Singapore Airlines,
which have led to greater transport links and visitor arrivals from important Asian markets. Fiji
can become a top vacation destination in the world and realize its full opportunity for tourism
with the right policies and advance planning.

References
Davies, T., 2000. Environmental Implications of the Tourism Industry. AgEcon Search, pp. 1-49.
Everett, H., 2018. Tourism as adriver of growth in the Pacific. Issue in Pacific Development, 06, 2(1), pp.
5-24.
Fien John, G. A. P. K. P. K. S. T., 2003. Environment, Education and society in the Asia- Pacific. Local
traditions and global discourse. s.l.:Routledge.
Jenkins, D. D. &., 2010. Destination place identity and regional tourism policy. An International Journal
of Tourism Space, Place and Environment, 4 6, Volume 5, pp. 383-407.
Prasad, A., 2013. Problems and development issues of SMEs in Fiji. International Journal of
Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 5 6.pp. 21-34.
Reisinger, Y., 2008. Cross-Cultural Differences in Tourism: A Strategy for Tourism Marketers. Journal
of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 13 10, 7(4), pp. 79-106.
Todorovic, M., 2020. LANGUAGE BARRIERS IN TRANSLATION OF LOCAL. 53rd International
Scientific Conference on Economic and Social Development, 10 09.
Wilson, S., 2001. Factors for Success in Rural Tourism Development. Journal Of Travel Research, 40(2).