Fiji revises its specialist programme

In an exclusive interview, Seema Kadam newly-appointed Country Manager—India, Fiji Tourism, talks about the need to create more awareness about the destination among trade.

Hazel Jain

Fiji seems to have put India on its priority list. The recent appointment of Seema Kadam indicates a stronger focus on this market. Its plans for the rest of 2018 supplement this. Speaking about them, she says, “We will have a refreshed Matai specialist programme with enhanced tools for agents with a more dynamic interface. This will be launched soon.”

This is an online training course for the travel trade through which anyone can become a Matai Specialist. This programme was created by Tourism Fiji to provide the international travel industry with the knowledge to sell Fiji.

In India, Fiji started the year with the announcement of its Brand Ambassador – actor Ileana Dcruz — and the appointment of Country Manager—India. Kadam adds, “The focus for 2018 is both on driving awareness of the destination through B2C as well as driving conversions with our trade partners. We have a comprehensive trade calendar planned to achieve this in 2018.”

The focus areas for Fiji will be to create a strong brand visibility for the destination along with a renewed B2B engagement via different platforms of education tools such as webinars, trainings, the Matai specialist programme, and in-house training workshops. “We also want to work very closely with the key stakeholders in the market through joint co-operations which will help us leverage the destination to a much wider audience via them,” Kadam says.

“The focus for 2018 is both on driving awareness of the destination & driving conversions with our trade partners”

Tourism Fiji has invested significantly in the India market due to the alignment of the destination with the market. Kadam adds that Fiji will continue to invest in the long-term potential of the market and will ensure resources are well balanced across all channels to achieve its goals. “We already are in the process of doing a lot of trade and consumer engagement via the key stakeholders like conducting trade trainings and trade famils. We are also keen to work on the B2C platforms.

Working on B2C

• Tourism Fiji is keen to work on B2C platforms such as radio, television and host bloggers and travel journalists on a media famil which will help them get coverage in both print and online media