Fiji puts out welcome mat for NZ holidaymakers

By COLIN MOORE

It started as a favoured millennium sunrise destination, but for Fiji tourism the year 2000 will be remembered as annus horribilis.

Nothing deals tourism a bigger blow than political uncertainty, real or imagined, and it will likely take some years before Fiji fully recovers.

In the meantime, the Fiji Visitors Bureau is keen to point out that some things in Fiji are not as bad as they may have been painted.

Travel insurance is one example.

Penny Henderson, New Zealand director for the bureau, says the only incidents in Fiji not covered by travel insurance would be something directly related to a military coup - and that is a standard exclusion cause covering political unrest in any country in the world.

Henderson says the leptospirosis warning recently issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is well out of date. The outbreak is under control, there have been no cases reported since August 1, the outbreak was confined to a remote area and no visitors to Fiji were affected.

There are several tangible signs that Fiji is on the way back. The construction of a $150 million Hilton Hotel, on Denarau Island, is to go ahead, Air New Zealand, Ansett Australia and Air Pacific have all increased services to Fiji and the Hawaiian-based hotel chain Outrigger Hotels and Resorts has opened a resort on Viti Levu's Coral Coast.