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Travel agents taking a hammering in Fiji remain hopeful that blood will not be shed, and that the country's tourism industry will bounce back faster than from the coup of 2000.
Fiji Tourism Action Group chairman Damend Gounder said yesterday the industry had been looking forward to another bumper year, but he feared that it would take 18 to 24 months to recover from the latest coup.
That was despite reports from resort and cruise operators that the main tourist areas remained unaffected as they were far away from Suva, the main focus of Commodore Frank Bainimarama's military clampdown.
Mr Gounder said resorts on the other side of the main island of Viti Levu were unaffected by roadblocks, and there was little sign of a military takeover.
But he said it took at least two years for tourism to recover from the coup in 2000, and people involved at all levels of the industry were braced for similar hardship this time.
"It's going to be a very, very tough time, especially now when it's coming round to the festive season," said Mr Gounder, whose organisation was formed to cope with the drop off in tourists in 2000.
Visitor numbers from New Zealand plummeted 33 per cent in that year, to 46,400 compared with 68,000 in 1999.
It took until 2003 for them to recover and for Fiji to resume its rank as the second most popular destination for New Zealanders. Boom times since then saw visitor numbers from New Zealand soar to 109,000 last year, accounting for about 20 per cent of Fiji's tourism trade.
But travel agents have this month faced cancellations from about 30 per cent of those who booked holidays in Fiji, as well as about a 95 per cent cancellation rate by business travellers.
Even so, Flight Centre spokesman John McGuinness said he remained hopeful that shots would not be fired and the industry could recover much faster than in 2000, when eight soldiers were killed and most Government MPs were held hostage at gunpoint.
Mr McGuinness noted that tourism had remained virtually unaffected by the bloodless military coup in Thailand this year, although Bali had not recovered from terrorist attacks.
The Cook Islands and Samoa were meanwhile beneficiaries of Fiji's latest setback, both enjoying increases of about 20 per cent in visitor numbers from New Zealand. House of Travel retail director Brent Thomas said that despite a 30 per cent cancellation rate for holidays in Fiji, only about 24 bookings by his company had fallen through since the coup began.
That was out of 241 people booked to fly to Fiji within a 14-day period, and included one group of eight people.
Both travel agents said December was usually the quietest month for Fiji tourism because of the muggy weather there, and they hoped a measure of stability may return by March, when visitor numbers generally started to pick up.
Mr McGuinness said about 8000 New Zealanders generally visited Fiji in December, compared with 15,000 in the peak month of July, and he even wondered whether Commodore Bainimarama may have timed his move to minimise the impact on his country's most lucrative industry.
- Additional reporting AAP
